Current Affairs Academics hold mock execution of “Czech science” in protest at cuts
Members of the academic community are raising the alarm over planned budget cuts for the Academy of Sciences. The cuts – proposed by the government’s Council for Research and Development - would see state funds for research projects fall by half over the next three years, something that critics believe will be fatal for Czech scientific research. On Tuesday students and professors held a mock execution of Czech science in the centre of Prague to draw attention to the problem. Earlier we spoke to Jiří Drahoš, President of the Academy of Sciences.
Photo: CTK
“Our main objection is that the proposal is totally unjustified with
respect to basic research, and especially with respect to the Academy of
Sciences. We accept that there is a problem with the budget in a crisis.
The problem is that the cuts for the Academy, which is about one billion
crowns, is totally unjustified and only a very small part of it can be
attributed to the crisis.”
The proposals call for more research projects to be judged on a case by case basis and have a sort of tender for each one – what’s wrong with that?
“Well, we don’t have anything against grants or projects. We are in fact a very successful institution in getting money from outside and from grants. The problem is if you lower the basic finances below a certain threshold, you cannot keep the teams together and you are no longer able to apply for the grants, you’ll have no chance to apply for European projects, for national projects etc. These teams are threatened by the decision of the governmental council, and that’s the problem.”
Jiří Drahoš
You held this very noisy demonstration in the centre of Prague on Tuesday
– what further steps do you intend to take to fight these proposals?
“First of all, I should maybe correct you: this was not a demonstration. It was just a happening organised by young scientists, young researchers from the Academy, although they were accompanied by some guys from the universities, to say to the media and to people passing through the city centre that there are problems. For me, as the president of the Academy, the next step will be to negotiate with the prime minister. I have a date next week with the prime minister, the finance minister and the minister of education and sport. So these will be official negotiations which should take place next week.”
One would have thought that the prime minister, Jan Fischer, would be your natural ally in this – he came to the government from the Statistics Office and he himself is a researcher, a scientist. Do you think he’s on your side?
“I hope so, but I’m afraid he doesn’t have the correct information, until now. That’s the problem. He’s been informed only from the side of the advisory board of the government, and I hope that he will be open to the arguments of the Academy.”
