The director of the Institute of History Gheorghe Cojocaru said the National Agency for Research and Development of Moldova places obstacles to the national researchers and the research projects proposed by the people of science are selected according to political criteria. Researchers’ projects weren’t assessed objectively by experts of the Agency, IPN reports.

“The projects must be won at an equal, loyal, equitable competition. But we witnessed a different assessment of the projects in the contest announced last year by the National Agency for Research and Development. It is a new institution created by the Western model and we had bigger expectations. Regrettably, the projects we presented weren’t assessed according to our expectations,” Gheorghe Cojocaru stated in the talk show “Emphasis on Today” on TVR Moldova channel.

Researchers of the Institute of History said they presented two projects to design a national history synthesis in five volumes, with three volumes centering on contemporary and recent history. The people of science consider the projects were rejected for political reasons.

Doctor of History Ion Negrei said that after creating the National Agency for Research and Development, the authorities truncated the external communication of the people of science.

“The research sector was transferred under ministerial administration, which is equal to transfer under political control. We warned that the transfer of scientific research under the management of the ministry will make the activity of researching groups more difficult as they lose academic autonomy. The ministries are under political control, while the governments are relative and can be replaced by 2-3 times a year. Political disorganization appears and the sector is affected as a result,” stated Ion Negrei.

The researcher noted that when some of the institutions of the Academy of Sciences were transferred under the management of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research, the institutional instruments for communicating with the scientific world of Ukraine, Russia, Bulgaria, Poland, Romania and other countries disappeared.

Historian Anatol Țăranu said that over 220 researchers remained unemployed as a result of the reforms done by the Moldovan authorities.