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Cooperative Research
- There is no doubt that when several scientists cooperate in a project the result of their efforts is synergistic, (more than the simple sum).
- This was realized early in Germany when the Kaiser institutes were established; a noted scientist was given a large budget and collected a group of scientists around him, providing them with first class labs and good salaries. There are now tens of these Max Plank institutes in Germany , each working in a specific area. Similar institutes were also formed all over the World.
- With the recent developments in communication, it became theoretically possible to stimulate cooperation without having to put people in the same building but providing them with connections and funds. This is what is now known as a virtual institute.
- It is obvious that putting people in close physical proximity is the more effective stimulus to cooperative research, but at the same time more expensive.
- A virtual institute employs only a handful of people and has no laboratories, no equipment (except computers), and no buildings and does not carry out any scientific research parse. All the saving in funds is used to support cooperation and the work of scientists in their own institutions. In addition the institutions do not lose good faculty. Virtual institutes are now common all over the World.
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