|
|
| Wednesday, September 8, 2010 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Brain circulation' in Hungary
|
Jane Burgermeister •
|
Despite a lack of support from the government, scientists are starting to return home
|
VIENNA?Hungarian scientists are starting to return home from overseas, helping reverse years of brain drain, researchers told a meeting here last week. But they are finding that the welcome mat is not always out for them.
At Biotechnology International Review Conference, Andras Dinnyes, from the Agricultural Biotechnology Center in Godollo, said that the return of Hungarian scientists was essential for the future of science in the country.
"The great strength of Hungary is its human capital. Hungary has a very high number of Nobel Laureates for such a small population but all except one?Albert von Szent-Györgyi Nagyrapolt?received their Nobel Prize for work that they did abroad," he told The Scientist.
Accurate estimates of how many scientists left Hungary in the wake of the collapse of communism are hard to come by, but Pal Tamas, director of the Institute of Sociology at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences has said that 1000 to 1500 professors left the country between 1885 and 1995.
Dinnyes himself estimates that as many as 5000 scientists left Hungary after 1989, going to countries with stronger research infrastructure, better labs, and higher funding?most often the United States, Germany, and Austria.
But now, for the first time, scientists are beginning to return to Hungary?albeit mainly with the help of funding from the EU and international grants. Dinnyes is one of seven Hungarian scientists who returned home with the help of a ?770,000 (USD $1 million) grant from the Wellcome Trust Programme for Central Europe.
Dinnyes worked in the United States, Japan, Belgium as well as the Roslin Institute in Scotland. He is now the head of the first nuclear cell transfer tech lab in Eastern Europe and said that "brain circulation" had well and truly replaced "brain drain" at his center?where 90% of postdocs now spend time abroad and EU money had allowed him to employ scientists from Western European countries.
Dinnyes predicted that more Hungarian scientists would return as salaries improve. "The salary of a researcher in Hungary is now about one fifth to one eight of EU or US salaries, but this gap will shrink," he said.
"Scientists come back bringing new techniques, international connections, a good publication record, which makes them more attractive to grant agencies, so they might bring in more support," Dinnyes said.
Nevertheless, Regina Saphier, a young Hungarian who studied in the United States and who founded a network to help scientists and other professionals return home, said that the cash-strapped Hungarian government is doing little to help scientists come back.
"The government has no measures in place to encourage scientists to return and no funding. The only funding comes from the EU. There are few research facilities, and also the networks are closed, making it difficult for people from abroad to find jobs," Saphier told The Scientist.
"We look at how many hits [the network's] homepage has and we can see there is an enormous need and a tremendous interest, especially among Hungarian scientists in the US and Germany," Saphier said.
Saphier said her pilot research project showed that most scientists who want to return were born in the 60s or 70s, with a high percentage of women scientists wishing to go back home.
Saphier has managed to persuade the Hungarian Ministry of Education to sponsor a conference on the problems faced by researchers wishing to return to Hungary, which will take place next week. "We want to help scientists to return to Hungary by sharing information and building networks and publicizing their problems," she said.
The Biotechnology International Review Conference held in Vienna last week (November 14?18) brought together scientists from Central and Eastern Europe as well as Austria to discuss the development of biotechnology in the region in what scientists said they hoped would become a regular fixture.
|
http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20041126/02/printerfriendly
|
(The Scientist)
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
[Privacy Notice]
Copyright © 2003 HungarianAmerica.Com |
