Introduction by the director
From the new director's point of view the year 2005 was characterized by the adjustment to the tasks of the ZFMK, which are among others, the integration in the complex network of the cultural region, the cooperation with Bonn University, and the participation in national and international research policy (e.g. the East-African biodiversity project BIOTA, the DFG-programme "Deep Metazoan Phylogeny"). Moreover there are future projects to be kept in mind: the installation of a central database for scientific puiblications, a picture database...
In order to clarify that the work at ZFMK is mainly focused on Science, the name of the institution was changed from "Zoologisches Forschungsinstitut und Museum Alexander Koenig" to "Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig". In 2005, the significance of the ZFMK in the field of biodiversity research was again demonstrated by international activities like the International Congress of Herpetologists, the BIOTA congress in Nairobi and numerous projects in North and South America, Africa and Asia - most of them financed by competitive fundraising.
The construction works on the Clas-Naumann-Building are making good progress: the building will be ready for occupation in 2006. An application for the urgently needed renovation of the Southern part of the "old" Museum Koenig building (the "Villa" of Alexander Koenig) has been sent to the federal state government of North Rhine-Westphalia. The required funds have been announced, so we can carry out the renovation in the next years.
Unfortunately, the shortage of personnel at our institute cannot be improved. This is a severe handicap particularly for the Molecular Lab, where 24 postgraduates and students are supervised by one scientist and one half-time technical assistant (!). In order to improve the efficiency of the Molecular Lab, we used appointment funds to aquire new sequencing automats and a very powerful computer with parallelised CPUs.
Since the "Bonn-Berlin-Ausgleich" (funds provided by the Federal Government to balance the negative economic effects caused by the relocation of the government to Berlin) has expired, the ZFMK is forced to finance the further completion of its exhibition "Unser Blauer Planet" ("Our blue Planet") by itself. Moreover, PR projects and publications had to be postponed due to cuts of budgetary funds.
We hope that the newly founded organisation "Alexander Koenig-Gesellschaft" will succeed in raising funds for the promotion of the ZFMK. We thank the directory, the board of trustees, and the members of the AKG most sincerely for their engagement!
Cordial thanks also to the staff of the ZFMK for their engagement and for their identification with the institute and its tasks.
Johann-Wolfgang Wägele
