Hundreds protest at Slovak Academy of Sciences

Approximately 450 scientists and researchers protested on Friday morning at the premises of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV) in Bratislava and Košice. Gathering under the banner of "Science Wants to Live!", the group stated that SAV is in a critical situation since the Ministry of Education has failed to register it in the Register of Public Research Institutions; preventing it from accessing grants and entering into commercial cooperation. President of the academy, Pavol Šajgalík, stated in his speech at the Bratislava protest that SAV has suffered regarding its credit because of this. "SAV provided the Ministry of Education with all necessary documents as well as other required documents beyond what was legally required in order to register public research institutions," said Šajgalík. He added that the financial situation of SAV is so dire that individual institutions cannot afford new equipment and some works are financed by individual researchers from their own incomes. Šajgalík asked politicians to act and solve these problems by August 8, at the latest.