SAS visited by the Minister of Education
Supporting young scientists, linking the academic and private spheres, or providing different funding schemes for scientific projects. These were the main topics of the meeting between the Minister of Education Tomáš Drucker with representatives of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. The Ministry's delegation included state secretaries, the Slovak Academy of Sciences was represented by the President of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Pavol Šajgalík. The meeting took place at the Institute of Virology of the Biomedical Research Center SAS.
The Minister expressed his sincere desire to help the Slovak Academy of Sciences in solving the problems that scientists face every day. He informed them about the current calls that academics can apply for with their projects and introduced various sources of project funding.
The president of the Slovak Academy of Sciences spoke mainly about the transformation of SAS into a public research institution and the first positive results this change in the legal form brought to the academy. For the academy, declared support for projects that attract talented young scientists to SAS institutes is extremely important. Schemes of this type have been successful for years thanks to SAS and have attracted dozens of foreign scientists to the Slovak research environment, but many of them are also Slovaks who returned to their native country thanks to the attractive environment.
"We need to connect the academic and private sectors more intimately, therefore we appeal to the Ministry of Education to create a platform where these two worlds can be closely connected. This is precisely the way to increase the level of innovation that Slovakia will produce," said SAS president Pavol Šajgalík.
The Minister of Education and his delegation also visited the unique BSL3 laboratory, the Centre for Physical Activity BMC SAS, and the research premises of the Institute of Electrical Engineering SAS.
Composition of the Ministry delegation:
Tomáš Drucker, Minister
Ján Hrinko, State Secretary
Róbert Zsembera, State Secretary
Robert Ševčík, General Director of the Science and Research Division
Jana Lysáková, General Director of the Minister's Office
Dagmara Al-Khaldi Mičeková, Director of the Communication and Marketing Department
Composition of the SAS delegation:
Pavol Šajgalík, SAS Persident
Ľuboš Klúčár, Chairman of the SAS Assembly
Peter Samuely, Vice-President of the SAS for Science, Research and Innovations
Zuzana Panczová, Vice-President of the SAS for International Relations
Tomáš Hromádka, Member of the Presidium of SAS and Deputy Vice-President of the SAS for International Relations
Daniela Gašperíková, Director of the Organizational Unit, Institute of Experimental Endocrinology, BMC SAS
Juraj Kopáček, Director of the Organizational Unit, Institute of Virology, BMC SAS
Boris Klempa, Head of the Department of Virus Ecology, Institute of Virology, BMC SAS
Edited by Monika Tináková
Foto: Martin Bystriansky