The scientific and academic successes of Poland’s Presidency - Main contents

Polish Presidency paves the way for new academic opportunities.

We have negotiated a draft programme to finance research and innovation in Europe with a budget of €80 billion, agreed the direction for reforming Europe’s universities and reminded the EU of Sklodowska-Curie’s Polish roots. Those are but a few of the successes of Poland’s Presidency in the field of science and higher education. Over the past six months, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education has been coordinating the activities of the Polish Presidency in the area of scientific research, academic studies and innovativeness. All of 40 ministerial debates and conferences of experts have been held in Sopot, Cracow, Poznan, Bialystok and Warsaw. They were attended by more than 8,000 guests — EU commissioners, ministers and representatives of EU governments, Polish and foreign experts, scientists and researchers from across Europe and around the globe. The discussions focused on the future of the Internet, safe and healthy food, future research on clean energy, more effective financing of scientific research and the challenges of civilisation which the European scientific community is facing.

During the Polish Presidency, the European Commission unveiled its draft Horizon 2020 programme of finance for scientific research for the 2014-2020 period with a record budget of €80 billion. Work on Horizon 2020 has been our Presidency’s priority in the scientific realm. ‘A well constructed programme to finance scientific research in Europe may be a significant motor stimulating the economy, a key factor at a time of economic crisis,’ emphasised Professor Barbara Kudrycka, Minister of Science and Higher Education. ‘The efficient work on that document has also been a Polish success,’ she added.

The Horizon 2020 Programme marks the first time all the EU’s resources earmarked for research and innovation have been concentrated in a single document. The draft includes facilitated access to those resources for individual researchers as well as small and medium-sized enterprises. Formalities have been cut back and procedures simplified in order to attract a greater number of outstanding scientists and facilitate grant applications from smaller research teams.

The Horizon 2020 draft also contains a provision changing the name of the 15-year-old scientific-support programme from Marie Curie Actions to Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions.

During the Polish Presidency, the EU Council announced its conclusions pertaining to the modernisation of higher education. They stated that EU states should strive to bind the academic community more closely to its surroundings, support entrepreneurship and innovation amongst students and researchers and monitor the professional careers of graduates in order to better adapt educational opportunities to the demands of the job-market.

In its recommendations, the Council underlined the need to improve the quality of higher education by ensuring greater student and researcher mobility as well as more intensive cross-border cooperation. The Council has recommended reforms to Member States that will allow more flexible university management and a more effective way of financing them tied to performance and competitiveness.

‘The recommendations of the EU Council are fully convergent with the reforms of Poland’s higher education introduced in October 2011,’ Professor Kudrycka noted. ‘I am happy we have been able to share our experiences in modernising academic education with other EU states. The solutions developed in Poland have met with wide recognition in Europe.’

During the Poland’s EU Council Presidency, we have reminded others of the necessity to put Europe’s intellectual capital to fuller use and bolster the mobility of researchers and students. The Polish Presidency has also pressed for the more extensive inclusion of students from Eastern Partnership countries in EU programmes, above all the Erasmus programme. The ‘Go East, Erasmus!’ ministerial conference was devoted to that question. Held in October in Bialystok, it was attended by representatives of more than a dozen countries and received considerable publicity throughout Europe.

More at: http://pl2011.science.gov.pl/

Magdalena Kula, Ministry Spokesperson for the Presidency

Last updated: 30-12-2011