The scientific committees of PAS – do they get new possibilities of activity?

Abstract

All scientific committees represent in Poland an important part of the research community in various fields. Their importance is verbally stressed in many official documents and in printed declarations. However, in practice their intellectual potential is not used, neither in organization of research, nor in organization of the academic life. Several committees, e.g. in the fields of technology and biology, might play useful role as advisory and consulting bodies for central and local authorities also. It is not the case and new regulations do not announce any improvement. The committees’ activity is limited in fact to meetings and internal discussions and that dissatisfactory situation is maintained.