/View.info/ Anger. With this only feeling, BAS scientists welcomed the 2022 budget draft, which on Thursday passed the first reading in the parliament. They demanded an urgent meeting with the government and said that this time they would not tolerate being deceived by promises of a possible future update of the budget, which they described as
harmful, discriminatory and offensive
For more than 10 years, the academy has been trying to get out of the consequences of “typhoon Dyankov”, which drastically cut money for science and tried to starve it, through the draft budget for 2022, the policy of hatred towards it is frankly returned to this scandalous financial minister of Boyko Borisov. At the time, Dyankov cut the academy’s money by 40% and reduced from BGN 90 to BGN 18 million those for the Scientific Research Fund (FNI) – the only instrument of the state for competitive financing of scientific projects with Bulgarian specifics and goals! Then the intention to destroy Bulgarian science was clear. But there is neither logic nor explanation for what is happening now.
For this year, the subsidy of the already underfunded Bulgarian Academy of Sciences is not increasing, on the contrary – it is given only 2 million BGN to cover the increase in the minimum wage to BGN 710. This is obvious discrimination, because according to the Law on the development of the academic staff, all positions and the criteria for them in higher schools and scientific organizations are uniform. But last year, in violation of this law, a decree set basic salaries only for university professors, starting from a minimum of BGN 1,300 for an assistant. At the same time, salaries at the BAS have been well below this level for years, currently they are about 30% lower, the average salary at the academy is BGN 850. It is admirable that teacher salaries will increase to 125% above the average for the country, but the imbalance will become complete, because the professor at the BAS will receive less than the assistant at the university and less than… a beginning teacher. By the way, the situation is the same for the Agricultural Academy, which for 2022 is given only BGN 800 thousand additional compared to 2021 – for the minimum wages. There is no country in the world where the most qualified personnel receive the lowest wages! If this situation remains, on me personally
it smells like Strasbourg…
However, the most harmful thing in the whole thing is the genocide of young scientists, who would make more money in any mall than in BAS. In the last year, 120 young scientists have left the academy! Only those who do not think about their life path without science remain in the institutes – as much as to defend their dissertations and run abroad, where incomparably better conditions for scientific work are created for them. They have no prospects in the science sector in Bulgaria. And all this means interruption of the reproduction of scientific footage, without which science simply dies.
The Minister of Education and Science Academician Nikolay Denkov requested an additional BGN 20.4 million for the BAS, but did not receive it, as is understood from his report to the competent committee in the parliament. The funniest excuse that Finance Minister Asen Vassilev could come up with is that money could not just be given like that, but it had to be against specific commitments and results. Prime Minister Kiril Petkov satisfied the request of the scientists and met with the chairman of the BAS academic Julian Revalski. He promised support, but he too – against results.
This mantra is not new either, but it only shows an attempt to gloss over the academy’s budget blunders. Firstly – where else in the sector, and in the public sphere in general, is such a demand made to pay wages? Nowhere. And secondly – justifying yourself by demanding results and efficiency just for BAS is downright cynical. Even when Bulgaria was entering the EU, the person sent to control by the European Commission – Louis Bellmen, stated in an interview given to me on purpose that there is one institution to be admired in our country, and it is the Ban! And today the achievements of the academy are clearly visible. The main thing is that
only BA is reported before parliament every year
about her activities, presents in the plenary hall a detailed report of what she has worked on and what she has achieved in the various scientific fields, in front of all the deputies. The report is sent to the MoC and all ministries. And it’s publicly available. What other results are wanted? BAS has an authority recognized all over the world as a leading scientific institution in our country, it provides half of the internationally recognized scientific production of Bulgaria. The Academy is the leader in the sector in the number of projects from FNI and from European programs, it is the leader in the number of patents, its researchers are listed in the prestigious Stanford ranking among the top 2% of leading scientists in the world, its publications in refereed journals have increased by 38% for for the past three years, it has supported 14 monitoring systems in the country, over 50 expert bodies serving all sectors in our country and state bodies – as well.
By the way, BAS is the only institution in Bulgaria that underwent this – on its own initiative! – on an international quality and efficiency audit and in 2009 received a high rating from the European audit. On top of everything, stepping on the audit, BAS made the third internal reform in a row, consolidated the institutes and reduced them to 42 (once there were 122). Years ago, the authorities expressed their intention to subject the universities to such an external audit, but they wouldn’t… There is no important task in the country in which the BAS is not involved – from the construction of highways and tunnels through energy, ecology, the preservation of spirituality and cultural heritage to the creation of medicines. These are all facts. And for someone to justify that he did not know what the BAS does, is a demonstration of ignorance. And in 2022, to explain why science is needed is nonsense, which does not even exist in Burkina Faso.
And another mantra has been spreading for a long time among those in power in our country – that our scientists should work more on
international projects,
to bring in income. It would be funny if it didn’t show a complete misunderstanding of scientific activity. First, our scientists work on scientific projects with maximum intensity with minimum financial security (international studies prove it). Last year, the remaining 2,500 scientists at the BAS worked on more than 2,000 scientific projects. And in terms of the number of scientists per capita, Bulgaria already ranks last in the EU.
Most importantly, international projects are an upgrade, not a foundation, for science funding. The European Commission repeats this to us a hundred times. And even according to our National Research Strategy, we were currently supposed to invest 1% of GDP in science. In the EU, the average quota of GDP for investment in science is now 2.3%. More than half of them come from the private sector, but it invests in the own scientific institutes of large corporations, which we do not have in our country, and public scientific organizations are financed by the state directly or through scientific funds, recalled the vice-president of the BAS, art.-cor. . Stefan Hadzhitodorov. Our government officially plans for 2022 0.4% of GDP for science, and this is a bill from the Consolidated Fiscal Program, i.e. this quota includes the money from European projects, the expected funds under the Sustainability Plan, and the institutes’ own income from contracts, rents, etc.
In reality, our country invests a total of about 0.2% of GDP for science, and we are last in the EU in terms of public funds for research. Only BGN 16.8 million is planned for the National Research Institute, half of which will go to payments for projects from the previous sessions. And for science in universities, according to the law, 10% of the allowance should be given, but for years the Law on Higher Education was not respected and only BGN 8 million was allocated. Now BGN 13 million is planned, which, however, is still an offence.
And one more fact – according to the regulation, it is forbidden to pay electricity, heating, water, salaries from the money for projects. According to the projects, modern equipment and consumables can be bought, books can be published or conferences can be held, but the remuneration for them is not high – about BGN 100, according to scientists. In recent years, there have even been cases in Europe of refusing our quality scientific projects because our state does not support science, does not ensure its existence to a sufficient extent and is not a reliable partner in this regard. How to partner equally with our scientists from BAS, with its annual subsidy of less than 60 million euros, with their colleagues from the Max Planck scientific complex, which is similar in structure and goals, to which the German state gives 2 billion euros per year, or with SNRS in France with its budget of 3.7 billion euros? Even the Austrian Academy of Sciences in a similar country in size is provided with 359 million euros per year. You can’t be accepted as a partner if you’re going to heat flasks on a stove. And now the institutes are going to close because they have no way to pay the increased amounts for electricity and heating…
It is because of all this that anger will drive our scientists to the streets, if things with the budget do not change. They are demanding an additional BGN 30.6 million to equalize salaries with those in universities and to compensate for electricity and heating prices. And to give them the money due by law for the trained doctoral students, which in recent years were often not given to them. There was no money. There is money in budget relations for some, but not for science (see table 2). Not to mention how much money would come into the treasury if progressive taxation were introduced as in all of Europe, if the percentage of GDP of public spending were increased (now they are allowed up to 42%, and in the EU the average is about 47%, in France it is over 55%.). Why don’t you touch the assumptions about our low national debt within the EU or the rules for the criminal concessions of underground wealth and airports, from which the concessionaires export billions (according to the Audit Chamber), and in the budget only 200 million BGN is expected from the concessions fees per year!
Each budget determines the direction of the state’s development. Everything can be fixed, and the laws will be respected, as long as you want to develop your country through the economy of knowledge and through modern technologies, which cannot be done without science. And not as someone’s subordinate and dependent colony./Sn.1/
The data are according to the values of GDP and subsidies recorded in the budget laws for the respective years. In the “Science” function, the subsidies for BAS, for research in state universities, for SSA and the “Scientific Research” Fund are included here. The EU currently spends an average of 2.3% of GDP on science./Sn.2/
Everyone can see for himself which institution, how it increased its subsidies and how much it impoverished during the years of the so-called transition.
#Dyankov #Dyankovsky #View #Info
