Poles fail to gain EU research funds?

The European Research Council has been funding projects since 2007, with a 22-member committee deciding on paying out 670 million euro in research funding this year.

The two Poles, biologist Dr Marcin Nowotny and chemist Prof. Piotr Garstecki are to receive 3 million euro, the Metro daily reports, adding that all other Polish research projects were binned by the Committee at the verification stage.

Over the past five years, Polish academics and researchers have submitted some 540 projects, with only eight gaining additional EU financing.

“Polish applications fail at the outset, as our scientists are not able to boast about enough accolades, such as publications in prestigious journals such as Science or Nature,” Prof. Maciej Zylicz, head of the Foundation for Polish Science tells the daily.

Metro also writes that a publication in a scientific journal is proof for the EU that a scientist is successful in his research. However, a report from Ernst & Young shows that a Polish surname appears once every four years in such journals.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education aims at bettering the statistics with the opening of the National Science Centre in the southern city of Krakow.

The new centre is set to manage Polish budget funds independently of the government, with a committee of scientists assessing grant applications, much like the formula used in the EU’s structures. (jb)