Prof. Dr. Dieter Jahn

1
High Level Group on the Competitiveness of the
European Chemical Industry ad hoc group
Innovation and Human Resources

• Prof. Dr. Dieter Jahn
• Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker
• Brussels, 29 and 30 October 2007

2
Human Resources. Market Situation

• Status quo Europe has a solid position in
  education of natural scientists. Significant
  increase of number of engineers and technical
  personal is needed.
• Trends
• Increased worldwide competition for top talents
  due to the globalization process
• Increased demand in cross-sectoral education
• Increased importance of soft skills

3
Beginners in Chemistry versus Population
SE 292 NO 142 IT 84 UK 51 AT 51 DE 46 FR 43 CH 40
NL 33 BE 27 US 45 Beginners per 1 Million
inhabitants
Source Swiss Chemical Society, 2003
4
Influence of the image of the chemical industry
on the number of beginners in chemistry
Source Verbandstracking CID / Emnid-Institut
5
Where international students go Percentage of
foreign students in higher education
Source meeting of OECD Education Ministers,
27-28 June 2006. Background Report
6
Internationalization in Science
New hires of non- german natural scientists at
BASF AG
7
ISIS Institut de Science et dIngénierie
Supramoléculaires
Founded by Prof. J.-M. Lehn in 2002 within
Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg Research at
ISIS focuses on supramolecular chemistry and
nanoscience (Organized matter at the interface
of chemistry, physics and biology) Within ISIS
companies may run their own RD projects (100
IP) ISIS offers opportunities for fruitful
interaction between academia and industry
8
Henkel SusTech Darmstadt
Successful in the market

• Academia
• key-technologies
• Project-management

• Henkel
• Financing
• Market-Know-how
• Management
• IP/Patent laws

TU Darmstadt Laboratories, Infrastructure
9
Science to Business-Center Nanotronics
S2B Nanotronics
Academia
Degussa
Partner
Joint interdisciplinary system development T
emporary integration of team members from
academia, RD institutes, Degussa, and customers
Academia RD Institutes
SMEs Industry

• chemistry
• physics
• print tech

• process tech
• nano tech
• semiconductors

• specialty chem.
• printing
• electronics

• end-users
• system integration

NRW
DFG
EU
BMBF
10
Development of RD Cooperations at BASF AG
57 of all cooperations are with universities
and research institutes
11
Recommendations
Focus on excellence in science The world-class
Chemical Industry in Europe requires world-class
universities. We support initiatives targeting
the establishment of centers of excellence in
Europe EU-funding, strictly on competitive
quality-based peer review, needs to contribute to
the strengthening of existing and the formation
of more such centers of excellence. Improvement
the public image of natural science and
engineering To attract the young talents to study
natural science, Europe has to start with the
early education of children in special
programmes. Chemistry as solution provider for
energy, climate change, nutrition, etc.
Improvement of the image of the chemical industry
in Europe following the role model in Germany.
12
Recommendations

• Intensification of RD cooperations between
  academia and industry in order to accelerate
  innovation processes
• Strong networks between chemical companies,
  universities and research institutes build a
  platform for innovations in Europe
• Efficiency improvement in the organization of
  education
• We support
• the process of Bologna and Copenhagen to get
  comparable standards
• the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU
• We have to develop solutions for the attraction
  of human resources for SMEs

13
Recommendations

• Promoting the careers of the best young
  scientists
• Promote the best doctoral students
• Expand the Marie-Curie programmes
• Expand the postdoctoral system in Europe

it is a great resource of talents from all over
the world