11 October 2010 – FORUM SCIENCE IS ALIVE! CALLS ON PRIME MINISTER NEČAS TO ATTEND TO THE ISSUE OF SCIENCE POLICY

In an open letter the civic association Forum Science Is Alive! asks Prime Minister Nečas about his attitude to the pressing issues of Czech science policy and its strategy. “Prime Minister Nečas’s cabinet has declared support for research and development to be one of its priorities. Despite this, the cabinet has not addressed these issues yet,” says Martin Krummholz, chairman of the civic association Forum Is Alive! At the end of September 2010 the first interim report of the international audit of the research, development and innovations system in the Czech Republic was published. The audit was contracted by the ex-minister of education Kopicová. The audit firmly confirmed the criticisms lodged against the Council of the Government for Research, Development and Innovations (CRDI). Current science policy in the Czech Republic lacks a strategy, strategic management, adequate assessment and feedback to the research, development and innovations assessment. “The audit clearly condemns the Methodology for the Assessment of Scientific Results drafted by the CRDI, which it repeatedly calls ‘perverse’. It has recommended to immediately stop its application because it can irreversibly damage quality Czech research. We presume that Prime Minister Nečas as the CRDI chairman will take the audit recommendations into account and will initiate systemic measures leading to the necessary optimisation of the conditions for research and development in the country,” adds Krummholz. Furthermore, Forum Science Is Alive! warns the Prime Minister that departmental programmes are the primary “black hole” of public funding for research and innovations; despite the huge sums distributed through these departmental programmes the control and evaluation of these programmes is fatally inadequate. In the TIP programme organised by the Ministry of Industry and Trade a whole one fifth of funding was allocated in 2010 without any assessment at all! “We consider the intention to increase the support for this programme by approximately CZK 1 billion in 2010 and 2011, to be truly curious at the time of general savings and budget cuts.”