Representatives of science after the meeting with Kopacz pleased with the budget

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz, Minister of Science and Higher Education Lena Kolarska-Bobińska and Minister of Finance Mateusz Szczurek met with representatives of the institutions representing the Polish academia (including the Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland and the Polish Academy of Sciences).

"We were informed about the Council of Ministers decisions and received the draft budget – President of CRASP Prof. Wiesław Banyś, rector of the University of Silesia summarised the meeting for PAP. – Science budget in 2016 will increase by 6 percent compared to 2015 (and domestic spending by 15 percent compared to the year 2015). These measures also include increased funding for the National Science Centre and the National Centre for Research and Development. The budget of higher education remains unchanged and additional funds are allocated for repairs and investments. We are pleased that according to the draft budget for 2016, science and higher education will benefit from additional financial resources".

It was not the first Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz’s meeting with representatives of academia. The earlier such meeting took place at the end of August. Then the Prime Minister listened to the expectations of the community, among others with regard to the budget. She promised a meeting at which she would inform about the budgetary arrangements. "This meeting took place today. We passed good information to rectors about the increase of budgetary spending on science" - Minister of Science and Higher Education Lena Kolarska-Bobińska said in an interview with PAP.

"We were satisfied with the government\'s budget proposals for the budget of science and higher education for 2016" - commented Prof. Banyś. In turn, the President of the Polish Academy of Sciences Prof. Jerzy Duszyński presented the Academy’s position in an interview with PAP: "We believe that it was a good and productive meeting, we are satisfied" - he said.

Kolarska-Bobinska told PAP that the topics discussed during the meeting with the Prime Minister included the situation of refugees and the numerous initiatives of universities that respond to the science minister’s call for accepting refugees. "The Prime Minister thanked the universities" – said Kolarska-Bobińska.

During Wednesday\'s press conference, Minister of Science informed the journalists that the total budgetary expenditure on science in 2016 will increase by 6 percent. "We anticipate that in 2016 it will amount to a total of 8.3 billion zlotys" - said Minister of Science. She compared that to the expenditure in the year 2015 that had been estimated at 7.8 billion zlotys, 460 million zlotys less. Minister pointed out that these amounts included not only national but also EU funds. According to the Ministry of Science calculations, if we take into account only domestic outlays for science, compared with the current year they are expected to increase by 15 percent (about 881 million zlotys).

With regard to funding for higher education, next year\'s budget allocates more than 15.7 billion zlotys, including nearly 12.9 billion zlotys in the budget of the Ministry of Science. According to the ministry, this amount is comparable to the amount for this purpose in this year\'s budget. "It is worth noting that more funds are allocated this year to renovation investments. This may not sound very romantic, but it is important for many universities located in historic buildings" - the minister said at a press conference.

PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland

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