Bar Ilan University President Kaveh with Finance Minister Bar-On
צילום: חיים צח
This is no way to fight brain drain
Global economic crisis may prompt hundreds of expat scientists to come home, but Council for Higher Education and Absorption Ministry say pitiful allotment of funds from Treasury not enough to take all researchers back
The Finance Ministry and the Council for Higher Education announced on Monday that 104 expatriate scientists who have returned to Israel were found positions at academic institutes.
But the NIS 95 million (approx. $23 million) allocated for this initiative does not seem to have impressed the Absorption Ministry, which estimates that no less than NIS 20 million (approx. $4.7 million) is needed per scientist if you want the process to be successful.
Israel has been increasingly trying to combat the so-called 'brain-drain' phenomenon, which has seen lecturers and researchers begin their academic paths at Israeli institutes of higher learning but then choosing to leave the country for better job offers at universities abroad.
According to data presented by Dr. Dan Ben-David, the number of Israelis currently working as senior university staff members in the United States constitutes a staggering 25% of the number of staff members remaining in Israeli universities and colleges.
Comparatively, in Spain, Britain, Germany, France and the Netherlands, the number of researchers who relocate to the US is only 1.3%-4.3% of the researchers who stay to live in their countries of birth.
As part of the 2009 budgetary agreements between the Finance Ministry and the Council for Higher Education's Planning and Appropriations Committee, a total sum of NIS 95 million was earmarked for the absorption of expat scientists, the improvement of existing research infrastructure and the establishment of new laboratories.
The number of Israelis with doctorates currently residing in the US is estimated at around 4,000, and the number of those with medical doctorates is close to 3,500.
'State is under spending'
Those charged with fighting the brain drain have found little comfort in these figures.
The Absorption Ministry launched a harshly-worded attack against the Finance Ministry, saying that 95 million are a drop in the ocean when considering the sums truly needed to bring the scientists back to Israel.
Omri Ingbar, head of the Returning Scientists Unit at the Absorption Ministry: "I could only raise my eyebrow at the celebrations surrounding the return of 104 scientists. As it is in a regular year (Israel) is supposed to absorp that number in all seven of its research universities combined."
Ingbar asserts that even on those who have returned, the state is gravely under spending. "The cost of adequately absorbing a scientist returning from abroad is around NIS 20 million. A perennial budget, or any grant given to the universities many be very nice, but it's not enough to open a position. I don't understand how they intend to take in these scientists without a significant budget increase.
"104 scientists is the normal turnover rate, there are dozens and hundreds of Israelis abroad who are waiting to return but can't. 95 million is a fig leaf, so as not to give what the Shochat Committee recommended, somewhere between NIS 2-3 billion ($478-717 million) to reabsorb minds," Ingbar said.
At a cabinet meeting that took place last month it was decided that a new inter-ministerial committee would be tasked with encourage the immigration of Jewish scientists and engineers to Israeli academic institutions.
No place to put them
According to the projections of the Council of Higher Education, close to 1,450 research students are expected to earn their PhD degrees this year. The number of Masters and PhD candidates is indicative that the country's key natural resource – brains – is still in supply.
Bar-Ilan University President, Professor Moshe Kaveh said, "The funds we received were smaller than what we asked for, and that is part of the battle being waged by higher education over the past seven years. We've lost enough scientists to constitute an entire university.
"More than 1,000 scientists have left us. The main reason is the higher paychecks in the US. Now, with the economic crisis, many of them want to come back but we can't take them in."
Professor Kaveh spent a brief sojourn abroad in an attempt to raise funds that would be dedicated to the absorption of scientists.
"The money we received just isn't enough. Every scientist costs millions of shekels, that's why the university presidents are devoting their times to double and triple the amount.
"If we had the budget, we could take in 250 scientists a year, and in four years – a thousand."
Chairman of the Planning and Appropriations Committee, Professor Shlomo Grossman, also believes that the global economic crisis has created a window of opportunity to bring back the fine minds that have
deserted.
"Bringing young, experienced scientists back will significantly strengthen Israel's academia. We hope the Finance Ministry and the Israeli government will continue to allocate considerable budgets to this end, since the window of opportunity to bring outstanding Israeli scientists back at a relatively low cost is one that we doubt will open again."
The Finance Ministry responded to the claims, saying: "Even when half the glass is full, there will always be those who prefer to see it half empty."
