Science minister confirms commitment to Ukrainian academics at London meeting

UK science minister Patrick Vallance reaffirmed the UK government’s support for the Ukrainian science community today, saying international collaboration was integral to scientific success.

The minister also mentioned a previous funding package from the UK government for Ukrainian researchers, at a seminar at the Royal Society.

“International collaboration is integral to success in science, driving growth and our shared security,” Vallance said.

“The seminar today is part of our plan to open up the UK science sector with meaningful partnerships, and stand in solidarity with Ukraine against Russia’s illegal invasion.”

Formalising research collaboration

The seminar was for the Ukraine ministry of education and science, and Vallance was joined by the deputy minister of that department. It cemented an agreement between the two countries to collaborate on research.

Vallance said: “We are committed to working with Ukrainian experts as they rebuild and reform their research and development ecosystem.

“Sharing our best practices with overseas neighbours and supporting Ukrainian researchers will speed up innovation that can’t be developed in isolation, ultimately resulting in a more prosperous and safer world.”

The UK has given nearly £13m via the ‘Researchers at Risk’ scheme, which has given about 180 Ukraine-based researchers academic posts in the UK since Russia’s full invasion of the country over two years ago. Julian Lewis, chair of the joint Intelligence and Security Committee, had called for the scheme to be expanded to include academics at risk in other countries.

At the seminar, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, the Royal Society, and the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science also shared key information on the Research Excellence Framework.

In May, the UK government announced that it was investing £16m in innovations to support the recovery of Ukraine’s energy system.

UPDATE 18/07 — Clarified the UK investment.

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Knowledge Generation call is set to fund over 3,000 projects with €655 million

The Spanish government has announced plans to allocate €655 million to its “largest ever” research funding call.

Science, innovation and universities minister Diana Morant (pictured) announced the plans for the Knowledge Generation call yesterday, saying it would “support 3,155 projects in all branches of knowledge, developed by both established scientists and young researchers”.

These projects will last 3-4 years and will aim to generate new knowledge while also solving societal problems, she said.

They will entail co-funding 1,169 predoctoral researchers, together with the European Social Fund, according to Morant.

Previous editions of the call have enabled the development of algorithms capable of predicting maritime catastrophes such as tsunamis or floods in real time, the ministry highlighted.

Morant said funding for the scheme had increased by 30 per cent since 2018.

The call is being managed by the Spanish state research agency, whose allocation to projects is set to be announced in the coming days.

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National research funder invites partners to discuss matters including how to improve working conditions

The Swiss National Science Foundation has said it is planning to revise its support for early-career researchers.

In a statement released on 8 July, the SNSF announced that it was reviewing its support, to better tackle the problems that researchers face early in their careers.

It has invited its institutional partners, including higher education institutions and researcher associations, to nominate people for discussions on what it described as a “key issue for the future of research”.

The funder has identified four key themes around the main problems associated with the academic careers it supports. These are: reconciling the importance of international mobility with its negative consequences; supporting careers outside academia or that take unusual paths; matching researcher evaluation to career development; and the importance of attractive working conditions.

Falling short

Katrin Milzow, head of research at the SNSF, said: “Current funding mechanisms seem to fall short of addressing the evolving needs of the 21st century, including more flexibility and permeability of careers across sectors of activity.

“Numerous studies and initiatives, in Switzerland and elsewhere, show that dependency and working conditions can also hinder the progress of early-career scientists.

“With this in mind, the SNSF would like to work with its partners on a fundamental review of the issue of career funding.”

The SNSF said that reassessing its strategy on this was a “priority concern”, adding that it had been working to develop innovative approaches to support early-career researchers since last summer.

Its first talks with other stakeholders on the issue are due to take place in the autumn.

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Funding calls aim to attract talent from abroad and keep Spanish researchers in the sector

The Spanish government is planning to use €80 million to advance research careers in Spain and attract research talent to the country.

The Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities said on 24 June that new calls for two national schemes were set to be approved by ministers “with the aim of attracting and consolidating scientific talent in our country”.

One of these, the Research Consolidation scheme, will get €50m to support the careers of 250 researchers from Spain and elsewhere at Spanish institutions, after earlier calls awarded €169m to support 842 researchers. Of those, 731 were Spanish and 111 were from 33 other countries.

The second scheme, called Atrae, will get €30m to attract 30 world-leading researchers to posts in Spain. A previous call in this scheme supported 15 Spaniards and 15 researchers of other nationalities. Each will get a three-to-four-year contract with a host institution and will use their grant to cover the costs of equipment and staff.

Science minister Diana Morant (pictured) said: “We are managing to return the talent that left us and attract foreign talent that sees our country as an attractive country to do science.”

Spain is becoming “a country that knows how to take care of scientists, that incorporates them into the science system and gives them stability”, she added.

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National Office for Scientific Advice will be created, with each government department getting an adviser

The Spanish government has announced an overhaul of how the country’s policymakers draw on scientific advice, involving the creation of what it describes as a new science advice ecosystem.

A National Office for Scientific Advice is being created to strengthen government decision-making, a new support unit is being set up at the National Research Council and each government ministry will have its own scientific adviser.

Together, these measures will result in more than 50 scientific advisers being appointed as government officials, the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities said on 20 June.

Prime minister Pedro Sánchez described the move as “transformative”, saying it would change the country for the better.

“If we want there to be more science in the government, we have to have more scientists in public administration,” he said.

Better connection

The appointment of advisers in each ministry is expected to better connect the government with universities and public research centres.

As part of the shake-up, researchers will be able to spend six to eight months working with ministries to learn about how the government functions.

The National Office for Scientific Advice will have a coordination and support role and ensure that science is heard even at the highest level of government, the science ministry said.

“Very few countries in the world have a scientific advisory network like the one we are about to deploy,” said Sánchez, calling for the “best scientists” to apply for the ministerial advisory positions.

On the same day, the government announced a call worth €2 million to finance experiments in public innovation policy and promote the use of government-held data by academia.

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Court decision invalidating presidential decrees offers chance to restore academic autonomy, European universities say

The European University Association has urged Turkish authorities to restore institutional autonomy to the process of how rectors are appointed to lead the country’s universities.

Earlier this month, the Turkish Constitutional Court nullified a decree from 2018 that gave the Turkish president increased powers, including over rector appointments, the EUA said on 18 June.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has controlled such appointments since 2016, it added. Initially he claimed the final say over appointments following a voting process within universities, while since 2018 “the selection and appointment process has been carried out without any involvement from higher education institutions”.

“The EUA has repeatedly stated that this practice diverges significantly from higher education systems elsewhere in Europe and has highlighted the international higher education community’s criticism of the perceived lack of university autonomy in the country,” the association said.

“No other European system allows the head of state or government to directly select and appoint rectors. Instead, European practice typically involves formal validation of internally made choices by the university itself, with limited external involvement.”

Reforming Turkey’s process to bring it more in line with international norms would be “a positive step” for Turkey’s universities, the EUA said.

The Turkish authorities must respond to the court’s decision within a year. In the meantime, appointments by decree can continue and there can be no retroactive actions, according to the EUA.

It offered its support to the higher education sector in the country.

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Scholars at Risk will present award at conference for universities affected by conflict

Ukrainian academics are to be honoured with an award recognising their resilience amid the ongoing Russian invasion of their country.

A representative of Ukraine’s Mariupol State University will accept Scholars at Risk’s Courage to Think Award on behalf of “all of the scholars of Ukraine” at a conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, on 26 June.

SAR is an international network that defends academic freedom and the rights of researchers and students. Its award will recognise Ukrainian academics’ “courage, resilience and unwavering commitment to their teaching, research, students and higher education institutions, despite the existential threat posed by war”, SAR and the European Humanities University, which is hosting the conference, announced on 10 June.

Resilience amid destruction

Since Russia stepped up its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, at least 59 universities have been damaged and nine destroyed by Russian shelling, the organisations said, citing Ukrainian government data.

Mariupol State University was one of the first to be destroyed and now operates remotely from the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, after previously being displaced during the first Russian invasion in 2014, they said.

“Yet scholarly responsibilities have increased…playing a crucial role in shaping public engagement and discourse in the country and abroad,” SAR and the European Humanities University said of the situation since 2022.

“Researchers have advocated for remote fellowships for Ukrainian scholars unable to find safe refuge abroad, collected data about damage to research infrastructure and connected fellow scholars with assistance programmes.

“Other activities include publishing special issues about Russia’s war on Ukraine in internationally renowned academic journals, fostering public engagement efforts through webinars and podcasts, attending conferences in Europe and North America and advocating for universities to support Ukrainian students and scholars.”

‘Exceptional and inspiring’

SAR executive director Robert Quinn said: “The courage and dedication of the scholars of Ukraine is both exceptional and inspiring.

“Exceptional in withstanding such a prolonged and violent assault, including repeated bombardments, occupations, and displacements on a mass scale. Inspiring in their demonstrated solidarity and creativity in supporting each other, their students, and their institutions.

“They put their careers, and at times their lives, on the line because they know that the future of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people depend in good part on research and teaching that supports rebuilding, inspires and empowers young Ukrainians, and defends Ukrainian nationality and culture against the current attempt to eradicate them.”

The awards ceremony is part of a broader three-day conference that will explore “the experience of academic communities confronted with exile due to political turmoil, repression, disasters and conflicts…from Belarus to Myanmar, Afghanistan to Ukraine, Turkey to Sudan, Nicaragua to Israel/Palestine and beyond”.

SAR is an organisation of more than 650 institutions in more than 40 countries that support academics who have been affected by war. The European Humanities University used to be based in Minsk but was forced into exile by the Belarusian government in 2004.

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Jerzy Małachowski will direct Poland’s National Centre for Research and Development

The newly appointed chief of Poland’s applied research and innovation funder has pledged to modernise the organisation.

On 7 June, the Polish government revealed that it had appointed Jerzy Małachowski (pictured) as permanent director of the National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR). Małachowski had served as acting director since March.

Małachowski said he was “very happy” to be appointed head of “such an important institution”, which supports Poland’s science and innovation policy.

“I have four years…ahead of me, during which I want to make the NCBR a modern, transparent and effective organisation. My priorities are to organise and streamline processes and bring the world of science closer to business,” he said.

Małachowski is currently dean of the faculty of mechanical engineering at the Military University of Technology in Warsaw. He also serves on the scientific committees of more than 40 national and international conferences and has published over 600 articles.

Last year, fears were raised that the NCBR would be abolished by the former ruling Law and Justice party, which also said it would abolish the National Science Centre, a funder of basic research. These fears faded following the October election, which brought to power a coalition headed by former European Council president Donald Tusk.

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Programme aims to increase competitiveness of Spanish aerospace industry

Spain’s Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities has allocated €70 million to boosting the country’s space technology sector, using support from the EU’s Covid-19 recovery fund.

The ministry launched a funding call on 15 May for its Space Technology Programme, which is co-managed by the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology and the Spanish Space Agency.

It wants to give €30m to projects to develop new products, processes or services to improve the production capacity of space systems, in particular those related to the delivery of satellites into orbit.

The remaining €40m will be allocated to projects to improve existing space technologies, focusing on those with “high disruptive potential”.

Projects must involve consortia of two to six companies, of which at least one must be a small company. 

Science minister Diana Morant said the government was supporting space technology due to the opportunities it presents for pursuing new opportunities and securing the country’s autonomy.

The call is part of a scheme called PERTE Aerospace, which is a public-private partnership intended to invest €4.53 billion in space technologies in Spain over 2021-25, with help from the EU Covid fund. The ultimate aim is for the Spanish space industry to become a “key player” in the sector, according to the European Commission’s webpage on the scheme.

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Survey by Society of Spanish Researchers in UK warns of ‘potentially serious consequences’ for R&D

Spanish researchers in the UK continue to feel a negative impact of Brexit, according to a survey by their dedicated association, the Society of Spanish Researchers (SRUK).

Eight years after the Brexit referendum, 80 per cent of Spanish researchers in the UK who were polled by SRUK said they “felt affected” by Brexit. Areas of concern included: mobility, bureaucracy, the economy and the cost of living, according to a statement on 7 May.

Key findings were that 26 per cent of current Spanish researchers in the UK are considering leaving within the next year and 74 per cent of them cited Brexit as a contributing factor.

The survey also highlighted upcoming changes to the British government’s immigration policies as raising “significant concern” among respondents, with the increase in the Immigration Health Surcharge from £624 to £1,035 and the minimum salary for the Skilled Worker Visa from £26,200 to £38,700 described as “worrisome”.

“We find it particularly concerning that a significant number of respondents are considering leaving the UK citing Brexit as a factor in their decision,” said Igor Arrieta, coordinator of the survey and co-head of science policy at SRUK, a non-profit organisation representing Spanish researchers in the UK.

He added that there has also been a “slowdown in the number of Spanish students and researchers coming to the UK”, according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency. This, plus more researchers leaving, may lead to a “talent drain” with “potentially serious consequences” for the country’s R&D landscape, he warned.

SRUK said that out of 720 society members, 100 participants responded to the survey.

According to the latest Hesa figures, cited by SRUK, there are around 3,335 Spanish researchers working at higher education institutions in the UK.

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Minister says country is growing its number of scientific jobs at a rapid pace

The Spanish government has approved an R&D budget for 2024-27 that is 32 per cent higher than it was for 2021-23.

Both public and private sector scientists will benefit from the boost, which is also 73 per cent higher than the 2017-20 budget.

The state plan for scientific, technical and innovation research, which the government approved on 7 May, is for nearly €18.4 billion.

Science minister Diana Morant (pictured) explained that it will be used to “subsidise and finance the science that is done in our country, both from the public sector and from the private sector”.

She said it was aimed at improving Spain’s ability to attract and retain talent, increase the quality of its R&D, support the transfer of knowledge and increase innovation activity.

Supporting jobs

A major reason why science, innovation and technology are considered important in Spain is that one in five new jobs are being generated in those fields, Morant said.

 “We have gone from being a country that expelled its talent with a brain drain to being a country in which precisely these jobs are growing at a speed five times faster than the average of the rest of the productive sectors,” she said.

On the same day, the Spanish government approved a call worth €70m for public-private partnerships in R&D, with a further €40m expected to follow. The call will address priorities such as nuclear fusion, renewable energy and the development of personalised medical treatments.

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Agreement aims for more collaboration in R&D and researcher training

The EU and Turkey have taken further steps along their way to becoming significant partners in research and innovation.

A second EU-Turkey high-level dialogue on science, research, technology and innovation took place in Istanbul on 25 April, attended by EU research commissioner Iliana Ivanova (pictured) and Mehmet Fatih Kacir, Turkey’s minister of industry and technology.

The two sides announced that three innovation programmes from Turkey have been given the go-ahead to participate in the European Innovation Council’s Plug-In scheme. This will enable them to submit projects from their portfolio directly to the full application stage of the EIC Accelerator instrument, which helps small companies scale up disruptive innovations.

Turkey’s involvement in the scheme is managed by the country’s scientific and technological research council, Tübitak.

The pair also announced that the European Institute of Innovation and Technology would set up a community hub in Turkey by the end of 2024.

They emphasised their commitment to closer collaboration in research and technology transfer and in improving the training of researchers and technologists. There was also a commitment for “closer and deeper integration” of Turkey in the European Research Area policymaking initiative for raising research standards, and in R&I missions and partnerships.

After the meeting, Ivanova and Kacir opened the Boğaziçi University Life Science Centre, which has been upgraded with nearly €8 million in financial support from EU programmes.

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Funding from Horizon Europe and US philanthropic organisations has near and long-term support objectives

The European Commission and US-based philanthropic organisations have separately committed additional funding to support Ukrainian research amid the ongoing war.

On 18 April, the Commission announced that it had allocated an extra €10 million to the MSCA4Ukraine fellowship scheme, which launched in September 2022 with an initial €25m and has already supported 125 researchers.

The extra funding from the Horizon Europe programme will support at least 50 researchers who have been forced to leave Ukraine due to Russia’s invasion and missile bombardment, the Commission said, adding that the next call will open in May.

It will fund training and career development, as well as providing funding for host organisations. “Selected researchers will be able to start a new project or continue their previous work to pursue their research in any subject of their choosing,” explained the Commission.

American support

A day earlier, the US National Academy of Sciences announced that it was launching a new fund both to provide near-term support to Ukrainian researchers within and outside the country, and to help rebuild Ukrainian science and technology for the long term.

The fund is launching with about $8m (€7.5m) from the Simons Foundation and with commitments from the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation and other philanthropic organisations in the US, with an aim of raising at least $15m for three years of operations, the academy said.

Academy president Marcia McNutt said that the fund will “help ensure that Ukrainian science and technology will provide a foundation for Ukraine’s growth and development for decades to come”.

The academy will manage the fund, but will appoint an external oversight board of science and innovation experts to help steer it.

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National science fund offers practical advice on handling discrimination and harassment in workplaces

The Austrian Science Fund, FWF, has released guidelines on fostering a diverse research culture that include practical advice on handling discrimination and harassment.

As the national public funder of basic research in all disciplines, the FWF reminded research institutions on 9 April that they have a legal obligation to implement diversity measures when they receive an award from it.

Its guidelines include definitions of discrimination and examples of harassment, and offer encouragement for victims and witnesses of such treatment to come forward.

Discrimination is defined by the FWF as worse treatment of a person due to their gender, ethnicity, age, disability, religion or sexual orientation. It differentiates between direct and indirect discrimination, saying the latter is when a general rule harms a specific group.

“Discrimination takes many forms, including sexual harassment, gender-based violence, unequal pay and promotion opportunities, and exclusion from decision-making positions,” the guidelines say.

Gender-based discrimination and harassment

Discrimination disproportionately affects women in Austria, the guidelines say—especially women with intersecting identities such as disability. More than one in four women in Austria have been sexually harassed at work, according to studies cited in the guidelines.

They say that harassment erodes trust in institutions; can create isolation as well as economic, physical and psychological harm; and can result in people quitting research.

The guidelines define and provide examples of sexual harassment and underscore that it is illegal in Austria. They explain how to provide a written testimony having been affected by, or witnessed, such harassment.

Examples of sexual harassment offered include “a professor books a double room while attending a conference with [their] assistant, citing reduced costs” and “an examiner takes advantage of an exam situation to make ambiguous allusions or induce physical proximity to the student”.

Besides legal obligations, the FWF said that welcoming environments are more conducive to innovation and creativity, as well as to recruiting and retaining underrepresented talent, leading to greater excellence in research.

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Some destroyed research infrastructure might never be recovered, group warns

Money alone is unlikely to be able to rebuild all of Ukraine’s destroyed research infrastructure, a group supporting the academic community has warned.

A recent UN report found that it will cost more than US$1.26 billion (€1.15bn) to restore Ukraine’s public research infrastructure to the state it was in before Russia’s full-scale invasion two years ago.

But while money is needed, it will also take time—and some infrastructure may never be recovered, the Science for Ukraine group told Research Europe. “Money can only solve so much,” Michael Rose, coordinator and founding member of Science for Ukraine, said. “On the one hand, it allows to build back better, with more modern equipment…if the war finally stops. On the other hand, there is a form of research infrastructure that cannot be rebuilt.”

Rose, who is also a researcher at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, said that specialist equipment, specimens and self-made tools would not be easy to recover. “If these are destroyed, money cannot easily replace them,” he said. [They] might never be recovered. This will hurt…scientists for years to come.”

Meanwhile, Pavlo Bazilinskyy, a Ukrainian-born assistant professor at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, said he believes the UN figure is an understatement. He said that many academic institutions have had to relocate, making it hard to quantify the damage caused through a loss of human capital. 

“It may be a realistic number. But it’s also hard to assess, while the war is ongoing,” he said. 

This article also appeared in Research Europe

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Ministry of Science allocates €224 million for technical equipment to strengthen research

The Spanish government has increased its budget for investing in scientific and technical equipment by a quarter compared with the previous funding round.

On 8 April, the science ministry announced it had allocated €224 million to its funding call aimed at research centres and universities, which it said was a 24 per cent increase on the last call in 2021.

The call, co-financed by the EU, will provide €130m as a repayable advance from the European Regional Development Fund, €85m in the form of a loan and €9m as a grant.

Science minister Diana Morant (pictured) said that the government was “strengthening the capacities of research centres and universities to carry out excellent science in our country”.

The ministry said the objective was to provide “state-of-the-art equipment” that would be widely accessible to researchers.

It added that the amount available for individual applications has also increased to €100,000-€2m.

The call is open from 15 April to 7 May.  

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European Institute of Innovation and Technology hub intended to take regional innovation to “next level”

One of the EU’s main innovation agencies has opened a Latvian outpost in a bid to unite the country’s innovation ecosystem.

The European Institute of Innovation and Technology, which funds and supports innovation networks in thematic areas, announced its Latvian hub on 2 April.

The funder said the hub will take regional innovation in Latvia to the “next level and provide a one-stop shop for local talent and entrepreneurs” to take advantage of the EIT’s opportunities in education, business creation and innovation.

Latvia is one of several EU member states that typically have low participation in the bloc’s research and innovation programmes. The EU is working to resolve this with targeted measures to increase R&I in the lower performing countries.

Anton Adamovitch, the EIT community officer at the new Latvian hub, said the outpost will act as a “centre of gravity” and “align” the Latvian innovation ecosystem to develop a knowledge-based economy in the country.

“With the support of the EIT, we will put energy into developing approaches and propose instruments and other tools—both financial and non-financial—to improve the ecosystem while continuously caring about quality of opportunities for the individuals that are entering the innovation ecosystem and ensuring it provides the necessary tools at various stages of development of businesses,” he said.

The EIT added that the hub will act as a bridge between Latvian businesses, educational institutions and the opportunities that it offers.

The contract to host the hub was awarded to Latvia-based venture capital and private equity firm Commercialization Reactor.

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Share of almost €60 billion will be invested in green technologies and cloud computing research

The R&D portion of the EU Covid recovery funds that are being released to Poland will be invested in projects to boost digitalisation and sustainability in the country, the National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR) has said.

In February, the European Commission announced that up to €137 billion of EU money that had been held back from Poland due to concerns over the rule of law in the country would be released in response to governmental judicial reforms. Up to €59.8bn is from the EU’s Covid-19 recovery fund, and up to €76.5bn from the EU’s regional cohesion funding.

The Covid fund must be spent on certain activities, with minimum shares for environmental sustainability and digitisation. R&D is among the activities allowed to be funded, and the NCBR told Research Professional News that investments will indeed be made in R&D, focused on green technologies and computing.

“Poland’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) is in line with the long-term goals of the EU…which is why it focuses on climate protection and digital transformation,” the NCBR said.

The plan seeks to boost Poland’s economic development and increase living standards “by accelerating the development of a low-emission, circular economy that uses environmental resources responsibly [and] based on the use of digital solutions”, it said.

Raw materials and the cloud

The NCBR is responsible for some of the fund’s investments in two areas: green technologies, and cybersecurity and data-processing infrastructure.

It said the aim of the former is to “create conditions for entrepreneurs enabling the implementation of circular economy principles in their business activities and [provide] support for projects” intended to help Poland meet its national and EU climate requirements. This includes activities to develop technologies that can increase the efficiency of raw material use and potentially investments in R&D infrastructure for technologies to use waste as raw materials.

For cybersecurity and data infrastructure, the main aims are to strengthen the resilience of the national cybersecurity system, boost the national computing infrastructure and increase the efficiency of public systems. As part of this, the NCBR said it will facilitate investments in cloud computing R&D.

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RI Days: Ukrainian diplomat says help with research and innovation feeds into all sectors

Ukraine’s research and innovation sector needs support to help not only the sector itself but all areas of the nation’s society withstand Russia’s onslaught, a representative of the country has told the EU.

Since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine a little over two years ago, more than 1,400 scientific buildings in the besieged country have been damaged or destroyed and 12 per cent of researchers have relocated, according to a recent report from the UN’s education and science agency.

But support from the EU and elsewhere for Ukrainian R&I assists the country beyond the hosting of its researchers and restoration of its buildings, Serhii Tereshko, deputy head of the Ukraine mission to the EU, said at the European Commission’s Research and Innovation Days conference in Brussels on 21 March.

“This war requires from Ukraine permanent and daily development of the defensive and resilience capability,” said Tereshko (pictured left). “Not only the hard security, like weaponry, but also initiatives in the sphere of cybersecurity, health, digital, energy. In fact every sector now requires new solutions.”

Ukraine is working towards joining the EU, and Tereshko said it is seeking to “build back better” in reconstructing its damaged and destroyed infrastructure, meaning it is aiming to meet forward-looking EU standards in areas like sustainable construction.

“These factors require investments in construction and in R&D,” Tereshko said.

Must-win and win-win

Moderating the session, the deputy head of the Commission’s R&I department, Signe Ratso (pictured right), described Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as an “unjust and unprovoked war”. She said the country’s R&I sector had been “incredibly resilient” but that even so the EU needs to “mobilise all our support” to help the country “win that war”.

This sentiment was echoed by Ewa Kocińska-Lange (pictured second from right), director of the Brussels office of Poland’s National Centre for Research and Development. She added that, nonetheless, EU support for Ukraine should be designed to be a “win-win” for both the country and its supporters.

In this vein, the German MEP Viola von Cramon-Taubadel said via video link that the EU “can learn from Ukraine” in supporting the country.

Students from Ukraine who have travelled to Germany to study have been found to be advanced in their learning, she said, indicating that their presence can bring benefits to their hosts as well as to themselves.

Kocińska-Lange said supporting countries must work with researchers in Ukraine and the country’s government as much as possible, to ensure the help they provide is really what the country needs.

A version of this article also appeared in Research Europe

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Unesco analysis says 1,443 scientific buildings have been damaged or destroyed by Russian invasion

It will cost more than US$1.26 billion (€1.15bn) to restore Ukraine’s research sector to the state it was in before Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022, according to a report from the UN’s education and science agency.

During the two years of Russian bombing, at least 1,443 Ukrainian buildings belonging to 177 public scientific institutions have been damaged or destroyed, a Unesco report said on 11 March. In addition, it said more than 750 pieces of scientific equipment have been damaged or destroyed.

Universities have suffered the greatest losses, the reported study found, and would need at least $980.5 million of the $1.26bn. The remaining needs are divided between scientific ministries ($143m), sectoral science academies ($48.8m) and the National Academy of Sciences ($42.5m).

Restoring the research equipment is expected to cost around $45.9m, with 643 of the 750 pieces considered to be beyond repair.

The actual figures may be higher as buildings in territories occupied by Russia cannot be assessed, the report warned.

Prior to the invasion, Ukraine was internationally renowned in fields including computer science, nuclear physics and astronomy, the report said. Between 2015 and 2019, its total number of scientific publications increased by 45 per cent.

Forced emigration, slashed spending

Unesco commissioned the Junior Academy of Sciences of Ukraine to carry out the study, which found that 1,518 scientists had volunteered for combat.

The report also said that 12 per cent of researchers had been forced to relocate or emigrate from the country since February 2022, along with 18 scientific institutes. Germany and Poland are hosting the highest numbers of researchers who have emigrated, it said.

The number of scientists employed by the public research sector in the country has dropped by 5.3 per cent (4,958) from 88,629 in February 2022, according to the study.

The budget of the National Academy of Sciences dropped from $238.6m in 2021 to $124.8m in 2023, while gross domestic expenditure on research as a whole in the country reportedly fell by 38.5 per cent between 2021 and 2022, from $2.02bn to $1.24bn.

Unesco director-general Audrey Azoulay called for research in Ukraine to be protected and supported.

“Scientists, engineers and other experts will be essential to the country’s recovery,” she said, adding that the sector is “a valuable source of innovation and discovery for the rest of the world”.

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Government wants Switzerland to remain “internationally competitive” through research, innovation and education

The Swiss government is increasing public funding for education, research and innovation by 1.6 per cent annually over 2025-28, it has announced.

It will devote 29.2 billion Swiss francs (€30.4bn) to these three areas over the period, which is SFr1.3bn above the investment for 2021-24, the government said on 8 March.

One priority for the funding is to support competitive research and innovation, including through the Swiss National Science Foundation. Particular areas of focus will include a national quantum initiative and international collaboration.

“The aim is for Switzerland to remain an international leader in education, research and innovation,” the government said.

It said the funding policy in this area was “based on the principles of freedom of research and teaching, the bottom-up principle with specific priorities, and competition and excellence”.

Public R&D funding helps to make Switzerland “internationally competitive”, it said, adding that “education and research are the basis for creativity, inventiveness and innovative entrepreneurship”.

The decision to raise the budget followed a consultation that the government said showed there was “broad interest” in research, innovation and education in Switzerland.

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Judicial reform set to unlock funding for activities including research and innovation

Poland is set to gain access to up to €137 billion in EU funding, for activities including research and innovation, that has been withheld up to now due to concerns over the rule of law in the country.

The European Commission announced on 29 February that it was ready to unlock the funds in light of reforms undertaken by the government, including around strengthening the independence of judges.

The country’s access to up to €59.8bn from the EU’s Covid-19 recovery fund, and up to €76.5bn from the EU’s regional cohesion, maritime and home affairs funds, has been blocked since 2022 due to concerns among EU leaders around matters such as Poland’s disciplinary regime for judges.

But the October 2023 national election brought about a change of government that has in turn led to progress on the reforms the EU was seeking.

The Commission said Poland could receive €6.3bn from the Covid fund in the coming weeks, and that the country could start claiming reimbursement for investments made from the cohesion and other funds.

R&I investments

The Covid-19 recovery fund has a total budget of about €800bn to support investment in priority areas including R&I and reforms intended to spur socioeconomic improvements. Of this, Poland could receive up to €25.3bn in grants and €34.5bn in loans to support activities such as digitisation and responding to climate change.

According to a Commission evaluation of Poland’s 2022 plan for its share of this Recovery and Resilience Facility, a priority of the plan is “strengthening the innovation capacity and the cooperation between enterprises and research institutes in key areas for the development of the economy”.

“Support for R&I is expected to enhance research commercialisation activities and facilitate innovation diffusion in the business sector,” the Commission said in its evaluation. It added that measures “should focus on improving public-private cooperation and knowledge transfer”, as well as on a need for “generally improving the [R&I] governance framework”. 

“Improving investment in innovation and R&D through, for example, fiscal incentives, regulatory changes, increased science, technology, engineering and mathematics education and public investment will be key to help Poland develop products and services that will allow its economy to move up the value chain,” it said.

Poland spent 1.46 per cent of its GDP on R&I in 2022, according to official EU data, below the EU average of 2.2 per cent and far below the bloc’s target for an average of 3 per cent. “Higher investment into [R&I] alongside other intangible assets could contribute to resilience against unfavourable economic shocks,” said the Commission.

EU regional funds can also be used to support R&I, in particular based on local ‘smart specialisation’ plans.

Turning the page

Paolo Gentiloni, the EU economy commissioner, said: “Poland’s access to much-needed EU support has been held up as a result of grave concerns regarding the rule of law.

“The progress that the Polish government has made in addressing these concerns is good news first and foremost for the Polish people, but also for all Europeans living in our Union of democracies and shared values.”

Věra Jourová, Commission vice-president for values and transparency, said: “Today we turn a page on the rule of law issues with Poland as we recognise the important strides made by the government.”

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SNSF tells applicants use of AI is their “personal responsibility”

The Swiss National Science Foundation has set out its stance on the use of artificial intelligence by applicants for its funding, telling researchers they are solely responsible for any ethical and legal implications.

Use of AI in research and academia has been increasing in recent years, in particular since advanced tools capable of generating text in response to queries began to be launched about a year ago.

Such uses in research include summarising literature, translating texts, improving the phrasing of papers, or even preparing grant applications, the Swiss funder said.

“The SNSF would like to emphasise that researchers who use AI for their work are wholly responsible for the results produced,” it said on 28 February.

Matthias Egger, president of the National Research Council, warned: “Researchers must ensure that the principles of scientific integrity are observed at all times.”

This applies to data protection and confidentiality, but researchers should also pay particular attention to correct refencing of sources to avoid plagiarism, the funder warned.

The SNSF said it is using AI itself to process funding applications and is looking into the technology’s further potential, but insisted that “applicants may rest assured that their applications will be treated in the strictest confidence”.

The statement echoes other research funders that have emphasised personal responsibility with regards to the use of AI.

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Campaign launched after study revealed lack of communication causes population’s interest in science to wane

Austria has launched a campaign to boost public trust in science, amid concerns that people in the country are becoming disconnected from both science and democracy.

The campaign aims to communicate to the public the important role of science in their everyday lives.

Education, science and research minister Martin Polaschek said his ministry decided to start the campaign on 9 February after a study he commissioned last year found that communication is key to improving public trust in science.

"The results of the…study have shown one thing above all: it is not so much the actual scepticism towards science…that is the challenge but the population’s low interest in science due to a lack of communication,” he said.

Science ‘a cornerstone’ of democracy

Polaschek added that the government wants to demonstrate to the public that science and research “are the cornerstone of our democratic society, the building blocks of our country and the engine for our future development”.

The campaign will also seek to boost trust in democracy, which the science ministry said often goes hand-in-hand with trust in science.

It will centre on posters informing the public about how science impacts their lives. One such poster explains that satellite navigation would be “useless” if it did not take into account Einstein’s theory of relativity.

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Research on promising therapies will take place at new accelerator in Valencia

A cancer therapy research facility is to be built in Spain to provide what the government said will be globally unique capabilities.

The Institute of Corpuscular Physics at the University of Valencia has been chosen to host the first compact linear ion accelerator in Spain, which will be used to carry out radiobiological studies.

In an announcement on 1 February, the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities said the use of such accelerators to treat cancer by blasting tumours with charged particles was emerging as “one of the most effective future therapies in radiological cancer treatments”.

“The scientific use of this equipment will enable radiobiological studies that are unique worldwide. The range of possibilities for research opened up by this facility is very wide,” it said.

Science minister Diana Morant said the facility was “strengthening the capabilities of the industrial fabric and R&D in Spain to [make it] a country that develops and exports scientific and innovative solutions”.

The centre will coordinate with similar facilities in Europe and Japan.

European push

The announcement came in the same week that EU leaders met in Brussels to discuss the progress of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan.

Set up during the Covid-19 pandemic when health emergencies gained new priority, the plan is in its third year and is providing €4 billion to improve cancer treatment in EU member states.

At the conference, it was announced that the EU will set up a network of treatment centres across Europe and that it has established a cancer partnership with the US.

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Commission official “welcomes” country’s interest in becoming part of EU’s academic-mobility programme

Switzerland has held talks with the EU about taking part in the bloc’s Erasmus+ programme, which supports academic mobility.

Swiss government officials met with European Commission representatives on 24 January to discuss the steps the country could take to participate in Erasmus+ once again.

Since 2014, Switzerland has been locked out of Erasmus+ after its government voted in favour of limits to immigration that went against the free-movement agreement the country had with the EU.

Recently, the EU has made progress in its wider negotiations with Switzerland, paving the way for the country to rejoin Erasmus+ as well as some of the bloc’s other schemes, including research and innovation programme Horizon Europe.

The Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that it had a “fruitful exchange” on Erasmus+ participation with Commission officials. It added that it was “looking forward” to continuing EU-Swiss exploratory talks.

Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen (pictured), director-general of education at the Commission, said: “We welcome Switzerland’s interest in becoming part of EU Erasmus+.” 

She added that collaboration on education would be “mutually rewarding”.

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University welcomes groups’ support, but says claims of decline in academic freedom are overblown

Student groups have decried what they say is a decline of academic freedom in Slovakia, in response to remarks made by prime minister Robert Fico.

There is “an escalation of worrisome trends in Slovakia pursued by the current government in relation to the rule of law, academic freedom and student participation”, the European Students’ Union (ESU) and Student Council of Higher Education in Slovakia (ŠRVŠ) said in a joint statement on 22 January.

They were referring to what they said were “attacks against students and academic freedom” by Fico’s government.

The row was sparked by student Marek Janiga responding to comments made by the dean of the Faculty of Law of Comenius University in Bratislava (pictured), who offered support for a government move to disband an anti-corruption unit.

That proposal has caused huge controversy, with some supporting the move but others strongly opposed. It even elicited disquiet at the European Commission, which told news agency Reuters it wanted the plans paused. But Janiga became the focus of ire from Fico for his comments.

“Fico reacted through an outrageous public position, which not only belittled students, their freedom of expression and student agency in academia, but also demeaned Marek Janiga through personal attacks,” the groups said.

The government did not respond to requests for comment from Research Professional News.

University pushes back

ESU and ŠRVŠ also criticised Comenius University, saying it did not condemn Fico.

But Radomír Masaryk, vice-rector for external relations at the university, told Research Professional News that “in their communication with Slovak media, Comenius University representatives repeatedly condemned the verbal attacks by the prime minister”.

Masaryk added that the rector of the university had personally contacted Janiga “and assured him of our support”.

He also said the situation was “an isolated incident”. An assertion by ESU and ŠRVŠ that there has been a “vertiginous decrease in the effectiveness of student participation rights in Slovakia” is “in no way” justified, he said, although he welcomed the groups’ support for Janiga.

“Our university, for instance, has made enormous progress in empowering our students to participate in academic self-governance. These advances should not be overshadowed by an incident in which an acting politician addresses unfortunate comments to our student,” Masaryk said.

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Rules on research integrity, joint degrees and short-term mobility updated

The Austrian government is seeking to boost its country’s universities with a swathe of law changes.

The government set out the details of its 2024 Higher Education Law Package on 16 January, including measures on research integrity and joint degrees.

“The 2024 Higher Education Law Package enables comprehensive standardisation and tightening up for Austria’s universities. Clear and transparent regulations set quality standards that ensure the excellence and relevance of academic education,” said science minister Martin Polaschek.

Some of the changes aim to strengthen research integrity by setting out uniform guidelines on scientific misconduct. These measures include a definition of scientific and artistic misconduct within the law. According to the definition, such misconduct includes the use of unauthorised aids such as artificial intelligence, ghostwriting and plagiarism.

Universities are responsible for ensuring scientific and artistic integrity in studying, teaching and research, the government stressed.

The government is also introducing more requirements for foreign universities seeking to deliver joint programmes with Austrian ones. Foreign universities will be required to provide more proof of their quality assurance processes for degree programmes.

Short-term academic and learning mobility has also been defined in law as periods of study or research abroad that typically last less than three months. Such short trips are used, for example, by the alliances funded through the EU’s European Universities Initiative for cross-border collaboration.

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More signatories to transparency agreement have published policy statements, but laggards remain

Swiss research organisations have somewhat improved their transparency regarding their use of animals, according to a first report on the matter since they signed a two-year commitment to openly communicate information.

The report, published this month, covers 26 organisations that signed the commitment in 2022, of which 14 use animals themselves and 12 support the use of animals for research.

Signatories have committed to being clear about how and why they use animals, communicating with the media and the public around animal research, and reporting on progress annually.

Partial progress

The umbrella organisation Swiss Universities facilitates the Swiss Transparency Agreement on Animal Research. Its report says that 19 of the 26 signatories have now published a policy statement on the use of animals in research, up from 15 before the agreement was devised.

Nine of the 14 organisations that do animal research have published information on the number and species of animals used, but only one of the 12 organisations that support animal research published this information on the projects they supported.

Eleven of the 14 organisations using animals also reported publishing images on their work that showed the use of animals in facilities, while publication of videos was “not common”.

More than 80 per cent of both kinds of signatories published articles on animal research or the need to reduce such uses, but only 57 per cent of those using animals, and half of those supporting their use, held outreach talks or face-to-face meetings with the public.

Twelve of the 14 organisations using animals provided media training on the matter for staff, but among the supporting organisations this was “not common”.

Reasons for lagging

Organisations cited “limited staff and funding, lack of technical expertise, limited coordination between communication offices and departments performing animal research, and limited information provided by grantees” as challenges to more open communication.

The commitment was launched by Swiss Universities in response to the overwhelming 2022 public rejection of a campaign to completely ban animal research, which the group said highlighted the need for more readily available information on the topic.

Signatories are both public and private institutions, including universities, companies, the Swiss National Science foundation and the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences.

Another progress report is expected to be released next year.

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Facilities responding to survey may gain recognition of excellence and access to EU funding

Hungary is carrying out a survey of its national research infrastructures, with the intention of allocating recognitions of excellence and importance that could shape future funding.

The survey, launched on 5 January by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office, is intended to identify “those research infrastructures whose uniqueness and scientific excellence are not only outstanding at the national level but [are] also significant internationally”, the office said.

It said that systematically categorising the infrastructures is important for ensuring they are used more widely, adding that the categorisation will also determine eligibility for support with EU regional development funds.

The survey will assess respondents on five criteria: their national strategic importance; international cooperation; open access; engagement in education; and contribution to industrial innovation.

An important aspect of international cooperation is whether the infrastructures are part of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures roadmap, which lists priority institutions across Europe, and whether they have participated in any projects funded by the EU.

Certain infrastructures will be categorised as excellent or developing promisingly, in a report to be released this year. The survey will update one from 2021 that covered 98 respondents, of which 50 were categorised as excellent and five as showing promise.

It has been sent out to higher education institutions, as well as institutions that are part of the national research network and major public institutions, but others are also encouraged to complete it before 29 February.

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