APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R00020011022-9
AW has made an effort to induce industrial establishments to conduct as much of their own research as possible so the AW institutes can concentrate on pure research. The AW is concerned also with personnel assignments and foreign trade for scientists and engages in research agreements with academies of sciences of other Soviet-bloc countries. It has about 20 national committees which are affiliated with international organizations. A reorganization of the academy has been underway since May 1968 with the objectives of making it an economical self-supporting organization, obtaining better government control over the academy, and consolidating small institutes with related missions. In 1970 the Leipzig branch was reorganized. Its projects concerning fundamental research were transferred to institutes of universities and replaced with industrial and applied research work.
There are several other scientific academies, The German Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Berlin, with 33 research institutes, is subordinate to the Agricultural Council. The institutes are grouped into six sections dealing with general agricultural research. The Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig and the Leopold-Caroline German Academy of Naturalists in Halle maintain libraries and publish journals but do not engage in scientific and technological research in their own institutes. Their members, however, are active in several institutes of the AW. Four academies promote medical sciences: the Medical Academies in Erfurt and Magdeburg; Carl Gustav Carus Medical Academy in Dresden; and the German Academy of Advanced Medical Training in Berlin-Lichtenberg.
Military research is under the VVB for Production of Armaments (UNIMAG), which is responsible to the Chief of the Armament and Technology Directorate in the Ministry for National Defense. Medical research is carried out in institutes under the Ministry for Health and in medical higher schools under the State Secretariat for Higher Education.
An important part of the scientific research, particularly basic research, is conducted in the universities and higher technical schools which have university standing and in the many large research institutes affiliated with the universities. Major research projects are assigned to individual faculties and institutes by the State Secretariat for Universities and Higher Technical Schools on the recommendation of the FR. In each higher educational institution there is a prorector who is responsible for supervising research contracts negotiated between industrial enterprises and the institutes of the universities; some of these institutes work almost exclusively for large VEB's which finance the contractual research and provide the research equipment. The Friedrich Schiller University, for example, works closely with the Carl Zeiss Works in establishing a closely related curriculum and research program in instrument design and production.
Scientific and technical research and development function under long-range research plans and annual working plans. The plan for national research is one of four sections incorporated in the New Technology Plan, which is part of the national economic plan. The directives for research and development are drafted by the FR with assistance from the Ministry for Science and Technology, amended by the State Planning Commission, and approved by the Council of Ministers. East German research planning has been influenced by directives of CEMA, which in theory directs work throughout the East European countries under the overall control of the U.S.S.R. Each country is assigned responsibility for research in certain areas, and under CEMA the Academies of Science of all of the member countries have working agreements for broad exchanges of personnel and information on research and development. CEMA has established a Central Research Council in Karl-Marx-Stadt to coordinate research efforts among the member countries. In practice, there has been some reluctance on the part of the East Germans to divulge technical information to other Eastern European countries. Only meager information is available concerning expenditures by East German industry, scientific academies, and universities for research and development, and the reporting is ambiguous. In general, research appears to be adequately financed with about 1.3%-1.5% of the gross national product allocated for research purposes. The shortage of personnel limits the amount East Germany is able to spend on research; the country apparently has been unable to utilize efficiently an increase greater than DME 100 million annually. Part of the funds provided by the government to higher educational institutions is used for research, but a major portion of the support of research in the higher educational institutions and in the institutes of the AW is derived from contracts with industrial enterprises. The Ministry for Science and Technology is assumed to be responsible for the allocation and approval of funds for research and development projects. During 1966 more than DME 2.3 billion reportedly were allocated to research and development centers. Of this amount, about 90% was allocated for research and development in industry,
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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R00020011022-9
