Czech science and research institutions are endangered by an attempt to implement a drastic reduction of the financing for the next years. Due to the government plan, approved by the Czech cabinet on 29 June, core funding for Czech universities and research institutes will be allocated according to a new rigorous formula of measuring and assessing research results.
As a result of the new evaluation system the Academy of Sciences, which runs 54 basic research institutes and employs more than 3000 scientists, will be affected heavily. In 2010, it will lose about 20% of its annual budget. The president of the Academy Jiří Drahoš says that by 2012 the reduction could amount to almost 50% of the current budget. The very existence of the Academy of Sciences would be in jeopardy.
Scientists in the Czech Republic are up in arms over the drastic changes that might damage basic research in the long term. More than 200 researchers and their supporters protested against the reduction of subsidies given to the Czech Academy of Sciences in the centre of Prague. More than 15.000 people have already shown their support to the “Position of the Academic Community on the Future of Research and Development in the Czech Republic” using the online form at: http://podpisova-akce.avcr.cz/en/index.php
Because of the difficulties to find a consensus among parliamentary parties, the early elections scheduled for 9-10 October 2009 will not be held. There will be probably the regular election in late spring 2010. So, the final research budget will be approved as a part of the whole budget by the parliament in autumn this year.
In this context the Public Opinion Research Centre of the Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences released the results of a survey on “Science, research and their funding in the view of Czech public” (September 2009). According to the survey results, science in the Czech Republic has a positive image among Czech public. It is considered to be of high quality and importance. On the other hand, people are more critical in case of its funding. The part of the public, which is more familiar with the topic, evaluates science and research in the Czech Republic and also the institution of Academy of Science more positively than the others. They also perceive in a more urgent manner problems of its current funding and call for more responsibility of the state for further development.
Detailed results from the survey are available at these web pages (in Czech):
http://www.cvvm.cas.cz/index.php?disp=zpravy=0&r=1&s=3&offset=306&shw=100951
Contact: Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Narodni 3, 117 20 Prague 1
Tel.: +420 221 403 111
Fax: +420 224 240 512
E-mail: info@cas.cz
You can find further information at: http://ohrozeni.avcr.cz/en
http://abicko.avcr.cz/en/2009/09/index.html
http://vedazije.cz
(source: Internet)