Gowin: We plan to build local mini centres of science
Up to 100 local mini centres of science may be established in the county towns between 2018 and 2021. On Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Science and Higher Education Jarosław Gowin announced the program SOWA (Strefa Odkrywania Wiedzy Aktywnej - Active Knowledge Discovery Zone).
"The Ministry of Science also plans to contribute to the celebration of the 100th anniversary of independence - Jarosław Gowin said on Thursday at a conference at the Ministry of Science. - Our contribution will be building the local Active Knowledge Discovery Zones. They will be a kind of Mini Copernicus Science Centres - local, county science centres equipped with modern laboratories. These laboratories will be available for classes of children universities, universities of the third age, but especially local of schools lessons - especially in the life sciences."
Kamil Bortniczuk from the Ministry of Science reported that the project would be implemented in the period 2018-2021, and as many as 100 of these centres could be established.
In addition to building mini centres of science with laboratories, where visitors will be able to perform experiments, the Ministry of Science also plans to create a VR (virtual reality) science centre.
The idea is that everyone can download an application from the internet that will allow - using a smartphone and additional simple glasses - to immerse in virtual reality and acquire knowledge - for example by travelling through the solar system, moving back to different time periods in the Earth\'s history. Such a science centre - as pointed out during the conference - would have an unlimited availability. "We will use the Virtual Reality technology to transfer knowledge, especially to children and young people" - said Gowin and expressed the hope that no one in the world would beat Poland to bringing this idea to life.
Ministry of Science has announced that it wants to allocate up to 150 million zlotys to the program SOWA until 2021.
SOWA is one of the topics about which Gowin spoke on Thursday. The purpose of the conference was to summarize the current activities of the Ministry and announce future plans.
The Minister of Science reminded of the so-called Gowin strategy, which consists of three pillars: a package of changes for science and higher education, building bridges between science and the economy, as well as the social responsibility of science.
As for the legal changes, the minister reminded that the deregulation law reducing bureaucracy at universities entered into force on October 1. He appealed to university authorities and the academic community, to treat the law seriously. "We have many examples that university authorities - instead of reducing bureaucracy - intensify this bureaucratic tediousness for themselves and their colleagues" - said Gowin.
He added that from January 1, 2017 the new university funding algorithm would apply, which would introduced a number of pro-quality criteria.
Work is also underway on a new Law on Higher Education, called Law 2.0. Assumptions are being prepared by three teams. The results of their work will be presented in March 2017. They will be used to prepare the new law.
The law - as Jarosław Gowin announced - will be widely consulted, both in academia and in the political community - with the opposition. "We want the new law to define the future of science not just for the coming years, but for decades. This requires broad political consensus" - stressed the head of the science ministry.
As for the cooperation between science and economy - as Gowin said - the ministry has concluded a public consultation on the introduction of implementation academic career path. Next week, the ministry wants to announce the details. "We will try to fast-track this law so that from spring 2017 it would be possible to earn doctorates not only based on theoretical work, but also based on industrial implementation. In the modified version we maintain the concept that the implementation path should also include habilitation and the possibility of obtaining the title of professor" - summed up Gowin.
Referring to the so-called third pillar of the Gowin strategy, namely the social responsibility of science, the Deputy Prime Minister announced a strong increase in expenditure on the development of universities of the third age. "This is one of the greatest phenomena of grassroots self-organization. It is civil society in action" - he commented.
PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland
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