The president of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova Gheorghe Duca considers it is stringently necessary for science to have increased participation and a greater role in society. In a news conference, he presented a bill with actions and proposals for reforming the scientific community, IPN reports.
Gheorghe Duca said that earlier, after a number of national and international assessments and consultations with foreign partners, there was drafted a reform bill that was distributed to the authorities for approved, but this wasn’t supported. Now the academic community put forward a new bill that contains concrete and efficient proposals for reforming the science sector.
Under the bill, a National Council for Research and Development will be set up as a consultative body of the Premier to examine the policy documents on research proposed by the authorities. Afterward, the Council will formulate recommendations and proposals concerning the financial resources needed for implementing them. A National Agency for Research and Innovation will also be created to represent the central administrative authority. It will be responsible for working out and implementing policies in the area of research and for distributing budget allocations for projects on a contest basis. It will also draft the national research program.
Another proposal is to reorganize the Academy of Sciences into an autonomous legal entity that will work based on the principles of self-management. The Academy will continue to include the organizations founded by it. The General Assembly and the Academy’s presidium will be the decisional bodies. The Academy will be financed with budget allocations, which will represent at least 40% of the total financing for science and innovation. The Academy will no longer work out state policies in the area of science. This will be the duty of the National Agency for Research and Innovation that will be founded.
“There were intense discussions about the reformation of the research area over the last few years. With the accumulated experience, I think the scientific community reached the necessary maturity to promote a new approach so as to further develop the national science so that it is anchored in the European research system,” said Gheorghe Duca.
According to him, the bill proposed by the Academy of Sciences will be submitted to the Government.
