The Romanian scientists are now fighting against their own government for an alleged power cut that will be leading to the diversion of their research money to the government cronies, not only this but it will also lead to the isolation of the Romanian scientists community and just as it was beginning to nurture connections to the rest of the world.
The research minister of the government who is also appointed as the new social democratic government in the month of January happened to miss the whole membership of the councils which would provide advice on the funding policy, ethics and also research strategy and innovation in the techniques and methodology.
The research minister clear all the Romanian scientist of working abroad and even the ones who appointed replacements, this also included the surgeons and many under investigation for misuse.
The list also includes some of the union members who were very well known for the loyalty to the government, even the little known city council members.
The research minister also virtually eliminated the role of the scientists in the grant evaluations. Some of the changes which were announced in the ending days of the month of January and were put in execution in the month of April were easily overshadowed by the massive and anticorruption protests, however the current scientists academic community is giving back to the Romanian government not only this but in the ending days of the month of April the Romanian top 5 Universities were asking the government to remove the research minister from his posts.
Recently on the 30th may one of the best scientist community named “ Ad Astra urged the whole scientist community to boycott the evaluation process for national grant competitions”.
This was the same day when the European university association exclaimed the expression of being worried about the Research Minister of Romanian’s decision.
After all of this mess there was an email written by the Research Minister Valeca where he wrote that the rescheduling was solely done to match and meet the goals and aim set by the government for the research ministry and even reported that such a stirred agitation is useless.
The selections and choices made by him were totally according to the objective and quantifiable criteria. The minister also reported that his actions had an economic and academic development of the country.
However according to the science minister of the country, Daniel Funeria from the year 2009 to 2012 says that the real of the country to allocate the money to a political clienete and this is instead of good science.
Many of the council members who are now out had barely begun their four year term period after a stringent process of selection by the Romanian government.
Ovidiu Andronesi an assistant professor of radiology at the Harvard Medical School in Boston and also some of the other members of the council of the National Research Council learned that they had been dismissed and removed over a single email which they received on the 31st of January which was similar to the same time when the Romanian government passed an emergency decree that decriminalized some of the corruption offences.
There was no confidence and no accident and the rudeness was that the government has sent them this over a message which was as defiant as possible.
The scientific progress of Romanian has been in struggling phase since a very long time and the country only invests about 0.49 percent of its total gross amount for its domestic products research.
This amount that is invested in less than any other European Union country and the country also ranks the least in the scientific productivity.
However the current government has promised a hike of about 30 percent on whole but the budget of the year 2017 didn’t reflect it and was less than 1.3 percent of it.
The Funeriu passed a legislation requiring a grant application for the experts who are abroad and are instituting the minimum qualification of all the job applications for the candidates who are applying for the available jobs and this was only to those whose reforms are undone by his successor.
The 18 members who were dismissed from the National Council of ethics are renowned Romanian scientists who are working in many countries like France, Mexico and Denmark.
According the Romanian scientists the government is being partial and the research minister is only favoring the projects in which he is deeply involved in, however this is not correct act to be done.
Not only had this but in the month of March the whole Nation Research community of the Romania was changed which was appointed for the year of 2014 to 2020.
This team was to make ALFRED that is Advanced Lead Fast Reactor European detector. According to some other scientists investing so much of the money in strategy of this project is waste however the government of the Romania believed that this project is very important for them to make the country an energy independent country.
But after this whole revolt and looking at the drastic impact of the research ministers decision the president of Romania concluded that they will be bringing the full support of the researchers from abroad and even grant evaluation communities.
Though some people of the other political parties believe that it is already too late roll back the research minister of Romania’s decision.
Whatever the conclusion the country will have they have lead to a huge destruction of the Science of the country. Not only this but the future of science in the country has also got affected because the youth perusing career in science might now be dizzy about their future and might even back off because of the dynamic political environment in Romania.
Thank you.
