Widening newsletter 6

The latest news

ERC SUCCESS: A Polish-born anthropologist has become Slovakia’s second European Research Council grantee, a small step forward for a country that is trying to make its research system more competitive. Thanks to the prestigious EU grant, Ela Drazkiewicz-Grodzicka will be able to continue studying conspiracy theories. She told Science|Business that Slovakia has a long way to go to improve its research system, but disagrees with those who say that “everything is great in the west and in the east there is nothing”. Read the full story here.

NEW CLUSTER: Universities in eastern Slovakia hope a new research and innovation cluster will give an economic boost to the Prešov and Košice regions on the border with Ukraine. University heads are now advertising the project to policymakers in Brussels, while hoping to overcome interinstitutional conflicts over the legal requirements for accessing money from the EU pandemic recovery fund. The full story is here.

THE ECOSYSTEM: Bulgaria is planning to give technology entrepreneurs a fast-track though immigration procedures, becoming the first eastern European country outside of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to launch a fully-fledged start-up visa. In doing so, it is not just looking for a regional advantage in central and eastern Europe, but also positioning itself in the Europe-wide competition to attract outside talent. Ian Mundell has the story.

HORIZON WORK PROGRAMMES: The European Commission has approved the 2023/24 detailed plan for the €900 million Widening programme in Horizon Europe, which includes two new calls aimed at reducing the research and innovation gap in Europe. Thomas Brent has written an overview of the calls, including a budget breakdown for the next two years.

In other news

BUDGET WOES: The budget of Poland’s National Science Centre (NCN) will not grow next year, according to director Zbigniew Błocki who warns that a stagnating budget will translate into lower success rates in funding rounds, meaning fewer researchers will have access to public funds. The government has allocated a budget of almost €300 million for the basic science funder in 2023. According to Błocki, the government gave the agency’s budget a 40% boost between 2015 and 2018, but the growth slowed down over the past five years, with the agency reporting a 13% increase since 2018.

ROMANIA: In the same vein, the Romanian government has announced a 62% increase of the national research budget for 2023. However, critics warn that does not keep up with the pace of projected economic growth and next year’s research budget would still account for less than 0.2% of GDP.

CZECH THE SCIENCE BUDGET: The Czech Academy of Sciences has announced 2023 will be a “complicated” year money-wise, mainly because it is set to spend over €20 million on energy, as the country grapples with rising electricity prices. President Eva Zažímalová told the academy’s assembly on Tuesday the Czech science community “has the prerequisites” to cope with the challenges but reminded politicians why they should “ensure the continuity of research and guarantee a certain stability” of the Czech science system.

GRANTS FOR UKRAINE: The Polish Academy of Sciences has launched a long-term funding programme for Ukrainian research teams. Displaced researchers working at the academy’s institutes can access up to $200,000 per year that covers salary, accommodation in Poland and research expenses, including equipment and travel. The funding has been made possible through a cooperation deal between the Polish academy and the US National Academy of Sciences. The deadline for applications is 16 January.

ERC SCIENTIFIC COUNCIL: Speaking of the Polish academy, Leszek Kaczmarek of the Nencki Institute of experimental biology is one of the five new members of ERC Scientific Council. 

FUNDING OPPORTUNITY: QuantERA, a project spearheaded by Poland’s National Science Centre (NCN) is to announce a call for proposals aimed at researchers in international teams who want to study quantum phenomena and applied quantum sciences. International consortia of at least three research teams from three different countries can submit proposals after the call opens at the end of January. Read more details here.

Mark your calendars

WARSAW & ONLINE: The second edition of the conference of Polish science diaspora will take place tomorrow in at the Institute of Aviation in Warsaw. The event brings together 330 participants from 19 countries and five continents, and it aims to connect Poland’s research networks to Polish scientists living abroad. More details here.  

The Widening newsletter is a roundup of news and analysis of research and innovation policy and investments in central and eastern Europe, delivered to your inbox twice a month. Sign up here.