The successor to Horizon Europe must offer ¡°equal opportunities¡± in funding for all participating countries, a Polish science minister has urged, rather than prioritising countries with the highest research performance.

Andrzej Szeptycki, undersecretary of state in Poland¡¯s Ministry of Science and Higher Education, spoke to 51³Ô¹Ï in the midst of the Polish presidency of the Council of the European Union, which will continue until the end of June.

He stressed that ¡°openness and synergy¡± should be priorities for the next framework programme, currently known as FP10. ¡°We believe very much that EU financial support for science should not be targeted only towards the best pupils in the class,¡± he said. ¡°European scholars don¡¯t all have the same burden of the past, and in the case of central and eastern European countries in particular, they started some years ago from a different path.¡±

¡°Research potential is one thing, but material condition is something very different,¡± he continued. Pointing to Warsaw¡¯s International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology as an example, he said, ¡°They have an international team of researchers and a long list of Polish and international grants, but they¡¯re having problems because the building is too small for them. We have to help such institutions.¡±

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The priority of ¡°synergy¡±, Szeptycki said, concerned locating EU funding in areas not specifically designated for research. ¡°Of course we have money which is earmarked for FP10, but it¡¯s not enough, and therefore we need to look for money within other EU programmes which are not officially for science.¡±

Speaking shortly after European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen confirmed, after a period of doubt, that FP10 will remain a self-standing programme, Szeptycki told THE, ¡°If you have a stand-alone budget, you know how much you have as a minimum. Synergy means bringing in and not taking away.¡±

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¡°We are very attached to the EU framework programmes,¡± Szeptycki said, noting that Poland has seen a ¡°progressive increase¡± in funding. Under Horizon 2020, the predecessor to Horizon Europe?that ran from 2014 to 2020, the country received about €744 million (?624 million) in total.

An indicated that Poland had by then received €677 million (?568 million) under Horizon Europe, which will run until 2027; the total is expected to significantly outstrip the funding secured under Horizon 2020.

According to the , Poland currently places 14th?out of 27 countries. ¡°We want to increase our participation,¡± Szeptycki told 51³Ô¹Ï. ¡°We are still far below the EU-15 average.¡±

Domestically, the science and higher education ministry is focused on ¡°turning quantity into quality¡±, Szeptycki said. For instance, ¡°our scientists are publishing a lot, but not always in top journals or publishing houses,¡± he explained. ¡°So maybe the numbers should go down, but the quality, the impact factors, the number of citations should increase.¡±

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A ministry working group is currently engaged in the reform of the scientific evaluation system, which monitors Polish universities and their research activities. At present, evaluation involves three criteria, said Szeptycki: ¡°the number and quality of publications, how many grants or how much money you have you have received and the social and economic impact of your research¡±.

The system is ¡°too rigid¡±, he said: for instance, individual scholars are expected to publish at least four articles over a set evaluation period, but those who exceed this total receive no extra credit.

The upcoming reform will include the?elongation of the evaluation period from four years to five, to account for research projects that surpass four years in length. ¡°Social and economic impact will probably play a bigger part¡± in future evaluations, Szeptycki said, while the publication criteria will be modified ¡°to stop pushing people towards publishing lots of work of medium quality, and switching to less but better¡±.

emily.dixon@timeshighereducation.com