An interview with Professor Krzysztof Jóźwiak was published in “Rzeczpospolita” on 5 November. The NCN Director spoke to Nadia Senkowska about research funding and Poland’s development ambitions.
“We need to focus on research, because only from this will ideas for future innovations emerge. While most projects will not result in tangible products that can be commercialised, the inventions that are nevertheless produced will ‘repay’ in taxes these earlier investments. They can secure the budget of an institution such as NCN for years to come,” says Prof. Krzysztof Jóźwiak in an interview with the “Rzeczpospolita” journalist.
The NCN Director points out that the current way of research funding does not allow for the development we should be aiming for, given the ambitions of researchers, society and the state. “If we are building a knowledge-based economy, investment in research should be a matter of course,” the head of NCN highlights.
Prof. Jóźwiak also gives examples of countries that have invested heavily in research. One of these is Belgium, which focused 30-40 years ago on the development of biotechnology and biopharmaceuticals. Why? Because it had great specialists and sensed how great the demand for research in these areas there would be in the future. Another example is Taiwan. “Admittedly, to a certain extent, the country did so under military pressure from China, but it is fair to say that we too – even if we were living under the hope or delusion that this kind of pressure was not on us – have recently changed our position on this issue,” Prof. Jóźwiak says.
The NCN Director also draws attention to the need to increase the NCN budget. He highlights that many researchers stayed in the country “because they saw that the system we are creating thanks to NCN (...) is similar to the one functioning in other countries”. There are also foreigners working here who came at a time when getting a grant was more feasible than today. “Both of these groups are specialists who could work anywhere in the world. So, if they continue to have to operate in a system where only 10 per cent of them have a chance to get their projects done, they will indeed look for work abroad,” he says.
For the full interview, see the “Rzeczpospolita” website.
As a reminder, in September the NCN Council called for an increase in the NCN budget by PLN 300 million. The winners of ERC grants have also made a similar appeal to the Prime Minister. There was also a petition to the head of government, prepared by a group of researchers, which was signed by more than 4,500 people from Poland and abroad.
According to the draft state budget adopted by the government, NCN funding is to increase by PLN 50 million next year. The legislative process is ongoing.