Science policy

Croatia’s research is ‘unsatisfactory’ and dogged by challenges, says science minister

Posted 25 May 2013 by Mićo Tatalović

Croatia’s science minister and his assistant have painted a rather bleak picture of the current state of the country’s science, characterising it as low quality, completely divorced from industry, and plagued by funding difficulties and fragmentation. The scientific and higher education system is “characterised by challenges and inherited unsatisfactory levels in some key performance indicators” write the minister, Željko Jovanović, and his assistant, Saša Zelenika, in the latest issue of Periodicum Biologorum journal. They devote most of the paper to... Read more

Posted in Croatia, Science funding, Science policy |

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Serbia’s science academy decries ‘catastrophic state of science’, demands government action

Posted 24 May 2013 by Mićo Tatalović

The Serbian Academy of Science and Arts has said it would write to the prime minister calling for him to host an urgent meeting to solve the 'catastrophic situation in science'. The decision to send the letter, announced this week (20 May), followed a meeting of representatives from the academy, universities, research institutes and the national body for science. The academy has called for a meeting with the prime minister to critically discuss the state of science in Serbia and... Read more

Posted in Science academies, Science funding, Science policy, Serbia |

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Will Kosovo’s new science law turn the tide on its poor research funding?

Posted 1 May 2013 by Mićo Tatalović

The tiny nation of Kosovo has a new science law, which mandates the government to invest 0.7% of its budget in research. This is great news for the nation of less than two million which has been through a bloody break-up with its bigger neighbour Serbia. A previous law that regulated science funding, from 2004, said that government should devote "up to 0.7%" of its budget to science. But critics say that this ambiguous wording allowed it to often invest... Read more

Posted in Kosovo, Science funding, Science policy |

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EU’s Horizon 2020 should pay researchers in Eastern Europe the same salaries as in Western Europe

Posted 19 April 2013 by Mićo Tatalović

The worrying brain drain from Eastern Europe and poor participation of scientists from the region in the EU's research projects could be reversed if the scientists were paid salaries equal to those of their Western colleagues, a paper published this week (17 April) argues. Such a move would come at a minimal cost to the EU's research budget but would level the playing field, allowing the East to retain and even attract talent, says the paper in Journal of Health... Read more

Posted in Business, Regional collaboration, Science funding, Science policy |

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Back to the drawing board for Kosovo’s plans to boost science funding

Posted 7 March 2013 by Mićo Tatalović

A new science law that would pave the way for more research funding for Kosovo's scientists suffered a blow two weeks ago (20 February) when the parliamentary committee on finance sent it back to the ministry because of "big budgetary implications that were not planned for in the 2013 budget or for spending in the medium term". The proposed law which would mandate the government to set aside a certain portion of its budget for research – for the first... Read more

Posted in Kosovo, Science funding, Science policy |

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Funding for Vojvodina’s science academy under threat

Posted 19 December 2012 by Mićo Tatalović

Vojvodina’s science academy, VANU, has published a letter to the public, both Serbian and international, calling on them to defend its existence as a regional academy dealing with issues that are neglected on the national level. This regional academy is in danger of being shut down for the second time since it was established as part of a decentralisation drive of the former Yugoslavia in 1979. When the Balkan wars began, VANU was closed in 1992 (together with Kosovo's science... Read more

Posted in Science academies, Science policy, Vojvodina |

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Croatia’s top scientists demand radical policy changes

Posted 17 December 2012 by Mićo Tatalović

A group of prominent scientists working in Croatia have made fresh demands for urgent policy changes to move Croatian science from the "bottom of European" science to a meritocratic and internationally integrated system. The letter follows a recent backtrack on long-awaited but highly controversial science reforms: the government suddenly pulled a set of proposed changes to science law from parliamentary procedure to make further adjustments. Many saw this as an excuse to water down reforms and maintain the status quo.... Read more

Posted in Croatia, Science policy |

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Revealed: details of the World Bank draft strategy for Western Balkans’ science

Posted 2 December 2012 by Mićo Tatalović

Four years in the making, the World Bank-led project responding to the Western Balkans science ministers' 2009 plea for aid to integrate their countries' scientific efforts is expected soon to result in concrete new research funds, networks of excellence, technology transfer and research evaluation bodies. The latest draft of the project's strategy, dated November 2012 and presented at a UNESCO-sponsored expert meeting in Sarajevo, has "five major lines" which will be discussed with national governments over the next two months,... Read more

Posted in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Regional collaboration, Science funding, Science policy |

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EC’s Researchers’ Report 2012: results for Balkan countries

Posted 30 November 2012 by Mićo Tatalović

The European Union needs a million more researchers over the next decade and it plans to devote 3% of GDP to R&D by 2020 to keep up with its main economic competitors and be a knowledge-based economy, according to this year's European Commission Researchers' Report. To achieve all this, it needs equal opportunities for women, attractive working conditions, open and merit-based recruitment, together with cross-border mobility, high-quality and attractive doctoral and post-doctoral training, and greater movement between the public and... Read more

Posted in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Science policy, Serbia |

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South-eastern Europe to harmonise its science policy, innovation

Posted 29 November 2012 by Mićo Tatalović

Science ministries in south-east Europe (SEE) are ushering in an era of greater collaborative research in the region, aiming to harmonise their policies and share their research infrastructure. The hope is that this will help improve their competitiveness with richer counterparts in the EU and further afield. Ministers and officials from 11 countries signed a joint declaration on Friday in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, outlining new avenues for better collaboration in five areas: infrastructure, policy, research statistics, research networking and... Read more

Posted in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Regional collaboration, Science policy |

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