Dioscuri grants deployed in Poland and Czechia could open up, if partner countries agree to come on board
Max Planck President Patrick Cramer during his speech at the ceremonial opening of the first three Dioscuri Centres in the Czech Republic. Photo credits: René Volfík / Max Planck Society
Since 2019, Germany’s Max Planck Society has been quietly funding new centres of scientific excellence in Poland and Czechia. But the door is open for other countries in central and eastern Europe to join.
“We continue to think about expanding the programme to other countries” Manuel Tröster, head of Max Planck Society's Brussels office, told Science|Business. “Next step would be the Baltic countries, on the one hand, and also countries in southeast Europe.”
The idea is simple: Max Planck and the participating country’s science funders jointly invest in new research centres led by an excellent scientist that moves to the country from abroad.
For the scheme to grow, new countries will have to sign up and pay in. Each centre has a budget of up to €300,000 per year for up to ten years, of which half is provided by Germany and the other half by the host country.
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