Further changes are needed

Abstract

Speech of Professor Maciej Żylicz, full member of the PAS and the President of the Foundation for Polish Science – discussion panel on the occasion of 60th anniversary of the Polish Academy of Sciences: Science in Poland: aspirations vs potential. Our aspirations are huge yet our possibilities are limited. Although in recent years expenditures on R&D in Poland started to grow, much has to be done in order to reduce a past backlog. In 2004 Poland spent on R&D around 17 € per inhabitant, in 2010 – 30 € from national budget and another 30 € from EU funds. The average expenditures in the countries of the socalled old Member States (EU15) per capita per year are around 150 €, while in Scandinavia it is over 300 €. The absolute values of R&D expenditures in Poland in 2010 was around 11.2 billion PLN (including the 5.14 billion PLN from state budget). Despite these limitations, in our country we can spend money on R&D in a better way. In November 2011, the Foundation for Polish Science on the occasion of the international scientific conference Multipole Approach to Structural Biology, organized an open discussion on strategies of the development of science in Poland. According to the participants, the main challenges the R&D system in Poland is facing in the perspective of the new financial horizon of the EU Funds (2014-2020) are: •improvement of the quality of research conducted in Polish scientific institutions; • removal of bureaucratic limitations affecting the innovativeness of Polish science; • increase in funding for R&D sector, with particular emphasis on the best research teams; • rationalization of the management system in Polish scientific institutions; • increasing competitiveness in the system of financing science; • inter-nationalization of Polish science; • increasing mobility of Polish scientists; • strengthening national and international cooperation; •linking research institutions with their environment. As you can see, many of these challenges can be accomplished in the current legal status. In many cases it depends merely on breaking old habits promoting equal distributions of money, regardless the quality of the scientific output. The proposed strategic activities include: 1) The key point: conducting a comprehensive evaluation of science system in Poland by foreign experts and its restructuring based on the results of the evaluation. 2) Removal of the bureaucratic blocks which hinder or impede innovation and limit competition. The largest blocks are: the need to plan expenditure well in advance, the need to carry out even small purchases in the tender system, applying too much attention to formal procedures and less to the merits and limitations of remuneration and method of recruitment of the research personnel, preventing the employment of professionals highly regarded in the labor market. 3) Concentration of forces and means in favour of the economies of scale to enable the establishment of cooperation nd/or competition of Polish units with the best foreign centers. Increasing cooperation between existing units. Evaluation of existing centers in terms of content and concentration of funding of the best rated. Creating new international research institutes. 4) Application of substantially more funding under the next UE Financial Perspective for the direct support of research and research teams, more competition and internationalization of research conducted in Poland, as well as increased mobility of Polish scientists. In a continuing well into the future a limited supply of funds for research, it should first be put on promoting the best teams and research projects. 5) Running the promotion of the achievements of Polish scientists.