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Institute Examples

EUROPEAN MOLECULAR BIOLOGY LABORATORY (EMBL)

The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) was established in 1974 and is supported by 16 countries including nearly all of Western Europe and Israel.

It was about 700 employees and is located about 20 minutes outside Heidelberg, Germany, on top of a hill in a state park surrounded by residential neighborhoods. The nearest stores and restaurants are located about a mile away. The EMBL is generally considered one of the best research laboratories in Europe and arguably runs the most competitive graduate program in the fields of molecular and cell biology and computational biology in Europe, with a total of about 200 Ph.D. students.

At the EMBL, group leaders have an initial five-year term, which is almost always renewed for a terminal four-year term, but there is no tenure. About 15 percent of the group leaders are given "indefinite" appointments that can be terminated by the director with two years' notice. These appointments are only given to individuals who take on administrative duties (for example, program coordinator or head of graduate program). It is believed that requiring nearly all group leaders to turn over with the same term, regardless of the perception of their scientific merit, reduces internal competition and increases cooperation between groups.

Group leaders generally receive funding for four or five technicians or postdoctoral associates. They are also allowed to add one new Ph.D. student per year, and almost all do. They can accept externally funded postdoctoral fellows and apply for external grants, although their opportunities are limited since they are often ineligible for host country grant programs. They can have as many people in their group as they are willing to fit into their space. Average group size for mature groups is about 10. There is also a "team leader" position, a three-year appointment used mainly as a way of extending time for productive postdoctoral fellows. There is a range of opinions among those at the EMBL about the wisdom of allowing outside funding.

CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON, DEPARTMENT OF EMBRYOLOGY

Founded in 1913, this research laboratory has a long-standing association with the Johns Hopkins University and is located on its Homewood campus in Baltimore. The department consists of eight staff members, five staff associates, 30 postdoctoral fellows, 15 graduate students, and approximately 40 support staff (technicians, lab aides, maintenance personnel, and administrative staff). Its scientists employ molecular and genetic approaches to study basic problems in cell and developmental biology.

Carnegie is notable as a first-class U.S. research institute (three of its eight group leaders are HHMI investigators) that does not grant tenure. Staff members have five-year appointments that are renewable at the discretion of the director. Group size—whether for a newly appointed group leader or the director—is limited to eight additional individuals. Staff members all hold adjunct faculty appointments at Hopkins. The staff associates have a similar arrangement to that we have set up at Janelia Farm fellows—a five-year appointment and a group size of three. There is excellent support for research infrastructure, and all large equipment is shared. The department holds weekly research colloquia in which its scientists present their work internally. The result is a highly interactive and unusually collegial environment. Two-thirds of the funding comes from outside sources (HHMI and federal grants).

COLD SPRING HARBOR LABORATORIES (CSHL)

CSHL is a research and educational institution that was founded at the turn of the last century and now has 47 research faculty members. It has research programs focusing on cancer, neurobiology, plant genetics, genomics, and bioinformatics, and a broad educational mission, including a recently established doctoral program, the Watson School of Biological Sciences. CSHL is located on Long Island about an hour outside New York City. CSHL does not offer tenure, but allows the most successful scientists to be promoted to a full professor position. These professors are given rolling five-year appointments—that is, they can be given a five-year terminal appointment at any time at the discretion of the director. Group size varies from two to 20. About 80 percent of funding comes from external sources.

In addition to providing an example of a physically isolated, freestanding research institution that has been scientifically successful without granting tenure, CSHL provides a useful role model of how to overcome physical and intellectual isolation, as well as provide a service to the scientific community, by means of an extensive program of scientific conferences and training courses. About 25 advanced courses (two to three weeks in length) and 20 scientific conferences (three to six days in length) are held on campus each year, bringing 7,000 visitors to the laboratory.