The pool of funds for research is growing, and researchers file applications for higher amounts, but the percentage of projects that receive funds is dropping, according to a report recently published by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
The report "Science in Poland", prepared for the first time this year by the Ministry of Science, provides information on the funding of Polish science and the research potential of scientists. It contains data on the structure of spending on research, information about academic staff in the country, including its involvement in raising funds for research, and current data about investments in higher education and science.
According to the report summary sent to PAP by the Ministry of Science, funds for science have been steadily increasing since 2007. While in 2007 spending on science reached PLN 3.8 billion, in 2013 it is PLN 6.8 billion. Between 2012 and 2013, the increase of expenditure in this sector amounted to PLN 130 million.
The Ministry report shows that in the past few years, funds raised for research have been increasing: from nearly PLN 2.4 billion in 2010 to over PLN 4 billion in 2012. It is, however, more and more difficult to obtain funds: in 2010, every third project received funding, and only one in five projects in 2012. The data also show that the number of funded projects dropped last year: in 2010, 4.8 thousand projects received funds, 5.4 thousand in 2011, but only 3.2 thousand in 2012. Last year, the number of applications for funding (slightly over 16 thousand) decreased by about 2 thousand compared to the year 2011 (more than 18 thousand applications).
"Although the number of applications is lower, the quality and potential is higher than in previous years. Scientists build large teams, take on complex and ambitious challenges and boldly apply for large amounts of money for their projects. I see that we have solved the problem of dispersal of funds for research and the money is spent more efficiently" - believes Minister of Science Barbara Kudrycka.
According to the report, most funds are awarded to researchers in the field of technical sciences. According to the Ministry of Science, in 2012 the amount of research funding in the field of technical sciences more than doubled compared to 2011, and amounted to nearly PLN 2.5 billion. As commented in the Ministry release, the current total value of grants in the field of technical sciences is more than PLN 5.7 billion, with an average grant value of more than PLN 2 million.
"Research in the area of technical sciences has the greatest potential for implementation and importance to the economy. Ii is important that researchers from the humanities and social sciences are involved as well. When developing a new computer technology, knowledge of humanities social sciences is often necessary to develop user profile, or work on intuitive applications" - said Minister Kudrycka.
According to the Ministry, business interest in funding research and development projects is growing. In 2010, entrepreneur declared that they would spend PLN 250 million in programs announced by the National Research and Development Centre, while in 2012 they declared nearly PLN 1.3 billion spending. In four years (2013 to 2016) entrepreneurs want to spend about PLN 4.9 billion on R&D.
The report "Science in Poland" also contains data on the success of research units in obtaining money for research. Ministry of Science points out that most active in applying for funding, when it comes to the number of applications, are: Faculty of Medicine of the Jagiellonian University Medical College, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Automatics, Computer Science and Biomedical Engineering of AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków, Faculty of History of the University of Warsaw and the Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics in Warsaw.
The report is based on data from the systems: POL-on (higher education information system), OSF (logging and processing system for applications for funding of science) and SIMIK (System for Monitoring and Financial Control of the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund), as well as data from the Central Statistical Office, National Contact Point for Research Programmes of the European Union and of the local databases of the Ministry of Science and the National Research and Development Centre.
The report can be found on the Ministry website here.
PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland
lt/ agt/ ura/ mrt/
tr. RL
