News blog

Greek geology body faces the (rock) hammer

IGME 2.gifEarth scientists are mounting a campaign to keep the Greek geological survey alive in the face of austerity budget cuts.

The Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration (IGME) – the Greek equivalent of the US Geological Survey – was the only scientific body named in Greece’s spring economic adjustment programme for closure (along with various real estate, tourism and business organizations, and the merger of two agricultural research bodies, amongst others). Since then, the IGME has been fighting for its life. Letters of support have been solicited from half a dozen organizations, including UNESCO and the British Geological Survey, in an attempt to convince ministers of the value of the organization, which does all manner of geological research along with hazard mapping and mitigation (The IGME’s website has been offline for at least a week, but a cached version lists these letters).


“The situation is far from clear, and nobody knows what is planned to be done,” wrote Stathis Stiros, a civil engineer at Patras University and former IGME employee, to Nature. The Greek National Council for Research and Technology is meeting over the coming months specifically to make recommendations about which scientific bodies should be slimmed, merged, or closed (see Greek Crisis Spurs Reforms). The head of that Council, Stamatios (Tom) Krimigis, head of the space department at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Washington DC, says that no firm recommendations will be made until September at the earliest, and was surprised to hear about the IGME’s predicament from this reporter. It could be, he added, that IGME’s fate is being considered under a different programme than the council’s review. The IGME’s press office told Nature that the government has promised there would be no loss of jobs at the institute; the economic programme, however, talks about “non-voluntary redundancies” and staff transfers.

The IGME is a bloated organization that might benefit from slimming, admits Stiros. “After 1976, IGME grew too much, not because of a scientific plan, but because various ministers thought it was an opportunity to [help] their political friends and supporters (drivers, secretaries, etc.) to find government jobs,” he wrote in his email. The institute is not renowned for its research. But Stiros notes that it serves many vital functions, including helping to predict and prevent landslides that cut off major roads, managing groundwater, and conducting hydrocarbon exploration.

It remains unclear if or when the institute might close. IGME Research Director Nikolaos Arvanitidis is thinking positive: “things for IGME’s further existence look more optimistic than they did a month ago,” he wrote to Nature.

Comments

  1. Report this comment

    David Martin said:

    Back in 1994, US congressman John Kasich, a Republican from Ohio, proclaimed “we don’t need a Geological Survey.” For the next year or so, the USGS had to worry, a bit, about its continued existence.

  2. Report this comment

    G. Thomas Farmer said:

    How soon we forget! Geological surveys have given us maps to help us find our way, an understanding of Earth materials to use for our benefit, a means of obtaining energy to run things, and an appreciation of the world around us that would have been impossible to attain without them. Save the Greek geological survey!

Comments are closed.