Academia Sinica has been a hotbed of activity in recent days. A meeting of members was held, suggestions were aired and new members were selected -- all of which received considerable media coverage. But a number of problems within this august institution have also come to light and some of the researchers organized a joint committee on July 1 to vent their dissatisfaction with the institution's policies.
One of the problems is the mistaken belief that success necessarily demands the investment of vast amounts of money, or in other words, the belief that as long as research funds are abundant and salaries high, good results will certainly follow.
We might consider the issue by looking at the Institute of Chemistry, which carries out research similar to my own. The researchers there enjoy considerable support from Academia Sinica itself and are eligible for research funding from the National Science Council (NSC, 國科會) and other organizations. The institution in general enjoys very high levels of funding, and funding for laboratory instruments and equipment is particularly generous.
For a new researcher, for example, initial set-up funds are typically up to a dozen times higher than those provided by a typical university chemistry department. But it is debatable whether the results of Academia Sinica-funded research is proportionate to the funding expended.
As for the question of pay, the graduate stipends given by the Taiwan International Graduate Program at Academia Sinica are higher than those given by most universities. The rationale for this is that the more generous stipends help to attract outstanding international students.
Academia Sinica also has the capacity to hire distinguished research fellows. There are several in each institute and they command salaries far higher than regular research fellows or university professors. The goal is to entice internationally known scholars to undertake research at the institution. But can the exclusive reliance on higher stipends really attract good students? Can reliance on a small number of highly paid scholars raise the overall standard of research?
Moreover, while salaries are indeed high, when other institutions offer even better pay and conditions, it becomes hard to retain such distinguished scholars. It has been reported that two outstanding researchers have been lured by attractive offers from other countries this year and will soon be leaving.
The fact is, salaries for the vast majority of researchers and university professors in Taiwan fall well short of those in Europe and North America. Thirty-two years ago, when I returned to offer my services in Taiwan, my monthly salary together with a subsidy from the NSC was less than my income in the US had been as a graduate student. At that time, the monthly salary of a newly appointed associate professor or associate researcher was also less than that of a post-doctoral researcher in the US.
Needless to say, assistant professors and assistant researchers ranked even lower on the scale. The annual income of senior professors was less than half that earned by a professor at a US research university, but many people were still willing to stay in Taiwan and render service to the nation. Recently the Executive Yuan announced that salaries will not be adjusted next year, but I am confident that very few people will neglect their professional teaching and research responsibilities because of that.
If the already generous funding at Academia Sinica is put to the best possible use and is backed up by appropriate plans for development, then I'm confident that Academia Sinica will be able to meet the high expectations that the nation places in it.
Liu Kuang-ting is a professor in the department of chemistry at National Taiwan University.
Translated by Ethan Harkness
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