The Interior Ministry, with reference to the Government's dispute with the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV), is insisting that the academy should be able to tighten its belts without redundancies if it makes intelligent changes in the way that it is run.
The Pravda daily reported this on Tuesday, adding that the SAV should follow the Interior Ministry’s reforms in regards to public and state administration. The SAV claims however that the ministry simply doesn't understand what the institution is about. According to the ministry, the academy’s technical institutes should also take precedence over the ones that deal with the social sciences. “As many as ten social science institutes have higher average salaries than the average for the SAV as a whole. We would expect above average salaries to go to institutes with applied sciences, such as the material research institute”, said the ministry's Dana Pohlodová. Pohlodová also pointed out that around a quarter of SAV employees aren't scientists, while one in ten employees is also on a full old-age pension. SAV chairman Jaromír Pastorek has responded by pointing out that SAV is planning changes as of 2016 under which it would be transformed into a public research institute. This would allow it to boost its cooperation with the business sector and earn more money from alternative sources. Heads of the individual institutes complain that the ministry is applying its reforms in the wrong place. “Putting [SAV] under the public and state administration (ESO) is a signal that steps are being taken to degrade science. It's a tragic mistake”, said director of the SAV's social communications institute Gabriel Bianchi. The Government initially proposed that the SAV should receive €10 million less (a cut of 16.9 percent) in state funding next year. Following public protests by SAV employees last month the Education, Science, Research and Sport Ministry stated that the academy should be able to apply for €8 million from the VEGA grant programme.
