The number of employees within a research group may vary through its lifetime. To achieve an optimal size, the group may include
• a clear leadership
• two or more associate fellows at the post doctorate level
• two or more dr.-students
• two more graduate students
• necessary technical support; this might be shared by other research groups within the department
Students at the graduate and doctorate level should work on related projects providing a stimulating environment, where fellow students can be a partner for discussion, sharing of equipment and techniques, etc.
Equipment - investments, operation and maintenance
The Weitkamp Committee gives an overall impression that the standard of the scientific equipment for chemical research at the Norwegian universities is rather high. The Chemistry Planning Committee strongly disagrees with this description. According to the planning committee's analysis, there is a clear need for further support to chemical instrumentation, from smaller units to high-cost instruments (see also Level of funding above).
In the present, situation the problems are:
• In a system with a stagnant (or even decreasing) lump sum budgeting, and with a rather large part of the grants allocated for salaries (80-90%), the "left overs" for investments and running expenses are decreasing in an accelerating way. Several departments (faculties) could hardly find room for investments neither in 1997 nor in 1998.
• Investments made possible by grants from the Research Council usually depends upon a separate split funding by the department/faculty itself. As a consequence of the
deteriorating financial situation of the universities, there are no means available for top financing such investments, as are usually or often required.
• The more sophisticated the equipment is, the more expensive it is to operate. Running expenses may often prevent an optimal use of the equipment, and do not stimulate possible users to make use of the technique. In worst cases, the equipment will not be used at all.
• Larger, advanced equipment and instruments will usually need a dedicated operator on a full time basis. If no such position (technician or engineer) is available (which is often the
To make it attractive to be employed at the universities, it is necessary to improve the working conditions for faculty members. The Research Council plays a very important role in this, as it is the dominant economic resource for buying medium sized and large, advanced scientific equipment. It is recommended that there should be an increase in the grants for scientific equipment. However, support for technical assistance, as recommended by the Weitkamp Committee, should be achieved through internal re-allocations of positions at the universities themselves.
PRIORITIES
In this chapter, the Chemistry Planning Committee recommends priorities with respect to national co-ordination of the various topics within chemistry research, and to what extent the topics should be funded at the various universities and colleges. The committee also suggests local actions to be taken by the universities themselves. The national co-ordination should be observed, and in some cases funded by the Research Council. The support to the various topics and universities/colleges should be made by the Research Council, and the Chemistry Planning Committee has, in accordance with the mandate discussed three different scenarios:
5% reduction in the Research Council's budget to chemistry research, no change, and 5-10%
increase (relative to the current situation). In many cases, the Chemistry Planning Committee refers to recommendations in the previous scenario by "as above" rather than repeating the previous scenario. Usually, the more optimistic scenarios include additional
recommendations to the Research Council. Our suggestions with respect to local actions are meant to be followed up by the individual universities and colleges, independent of support from the council.
The division of this chapter into sub-chapters follows largely the one made by the Weitkamp Committee, and is not an indication of the topic's importance. For instance, Polymer
chemistry is not a separate topic, but included in Materials science and in Colloid and surface chemistry. Following the Weitkamp Committee, the Chemistry Planning Committee has also split up the vast field of Physical chemistry into its dominant sub-fields in which there is active research in Norway.
The Chemistry Planning Committee has pointed out areas that should be strengthened, even in the budget reduction scenario. This implies that funding of areas not mentioned should be correspondingly reduced.
ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
Background
As stated by the Weitkamp Committee, organic chemistry is probably on a world scale one of the most active areas of chemistry, and against this background, the committee stresses great concern for the current situation for organic chemistry in Norway. Little cutting edge research is being done at present, and the Weitkamp Committee's impression is that, within few years there will be very few organic chemists (probably less than five) operating in Norway
approaching an internationally recognised high standard. The industry, the research institutes as well as the universities themselves, need candidates with a research background in organic chemistry. Research in the field is being carried out at all the universities of Norway.
Recommendations by the Weitkamp Committee
• provide sufficient resources for running expenses into the area.
• develop targeted programmes (examples: Organic materials, polymers, petrochemicals).
It is further recommended that the University of Oslo (UiO) should formulate a succession plan, and an active recruiting process is recommended to maintain the world-class effort in organic synthesis. Action should be taking to retain skilled technicians and to establish regular seminars and group meetings involving all groups working in the field of organic chemistry.
At the University of Bergen (UiB) it is recommended an addition of 3-4 young people to work at the interface organometallic chemistry/asymmetric catalysis/biological chemistry. Special focus should be set on "win win" combinations with other established research areas at the university, and gain greater visibility by publishing more primary literature.