Polish academics have demanded a near tripling of research funding, warning that the country’s public science sector could “vanish” within a decade without urgent action.
A protest is set to be held outside the parliament building in Warsaw on 27 May after more than more than 17,500 people signed a petition backing calls to increase spending on research and development from 1.08 per cent to 3 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030.
Łukasz Okruszek, one of the organisers of the campaign, known as “3% for Science, 100% for Poland”, said it follows years of unsuccessful lobbying efforts as research funding has continued to decline.
“We felt like we were stuck in a loop. It was like Groundhog Day,” said Okruszek, the head of the Social Neuroscience Lab at the Polish Academy of Sciences. “We launched petitions, reached out to politicians and repeated the same arguments year after year, but nothing changed.”
Okruszek said the rally would bring together early career researchers, PhD students and university staff from across Poland.
