NEWS | I N D E P T H
FUNDING
Greece raids research funds to pay salaries By Edwin Cartlidge
PHOTO: AP PHOTO/THANASSIS STAVRAKIS
G
reece’s ongoing economic crisis and political shifts are taking a new toll on the country’s scientists, already reeling from cuts in salaries and research spending. Now, the government plans to confiscate research funding to plug a hole in the country’s ever worsening finances. And the left-wing government in power since January is pushing through a reform of higher education that scientists say will make universities more politicized and less meritocratic. The cash seizure was authorized by Greece’s Parliament in a heated and emotional session last week. The emergency decree forces local government and other state bodies, including universities and research centers, to transfer their cash reserves to the Bank of Greece in order to pay salaries and pensions of public-sector employees. As Science went to press, it remained unclear exactly how much money would be targeted and when it would be taken, but researchers expect the government to grab funds set aside to pay for research overheads. These amount to as much as 20% of the value of grants and are hived off to pay for expenses such as utility bills and temporary staff. Costas Fotakis, research vice minister in the government coalition led by the Syriza Party, describes the move as an “interim measure” that will see the money placed in accounts earning interest rates of 2.5% and then returned later, providing Greece wins favorable terms in its negotiations with the European Union over its national debt. “We do hope that a fair agreement in the ongoing negotiations for the Greek debt will be reached soon, by the end of June,” he said in an e-mail. “Then this measure will be waived.” Greek scientists are particularly resentful of the raid because their salaries have fallen about 30% in the past 3 years and because Greece spends just 0.6% of its gross domestic product on R&D, forcing them to rely more heavily on the European Union for support. To reduce the level of confiscations, many researchers are frantically shifting or spending as much of their overhead reserves as they can, in some cases by stocking up on consumables and paying Ph.D. students’ salaries for several months in advance. “I have little doubt that a massive exercise in hiding research money from the government is probably under way,” says Costas Synolakis,
a marine scientist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Researchers are also fighting an education reform that the government announced on 17 April without public consultation. The measure—expected to be approved by Parliament within the next few weeks—would scrap universities’ governing boards, remove existing rectors, and give students a large share of the votes to appoint new rectors. As such, it reverses many changes brought in by a 2011 law that sought to limit the powers of students and administrative staff. That earlier law proved highly contro-
composition and functions of the National Council for Research and Technology, an 11-member panel that advises the government on the organization and funding of research. The council had clashed with Fotakis earlier this year. Its members resigned en masse on 4 March because, they claimed, Fotakis had told the press a week earlier that the council was “illegal.” Fotakis denies making that assertion. He says instead that changes to the council instituted last year by the previous government created a “legal vacuum” that may have affected the smooth running of the country’s
The Bank of Greece needs cash to pay salaries of public employees.
versial and triggered huge student protests. But academics saw it as a positive step in reducing the power of political parties over university appointments. “Since the 1980s, university administrations [had] been voted, not on merit or administrative prowess, but on party credentials,” Synolakis says. In effect, he maintains, the latest reform would “move Greek higher education back about 30 years.” Mathematician Thanasis Fokas of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom agrees that the reform would weaken academic standards. He notes that, among other things, it lifts a cap on the length of time a student can take to complete his or her studies. It also scraps electronic voting in university elections, which, he says, may allow students to steal ballot boxes and intimidate voters, as they have done in the past. The new law also seeks to change the
SCIENCE sciencemag.org
research centers. But the chair of the now disbanded council, Joseph Sifakis, a computer scientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, claims that the government disliked a number of reforms that the council had proposed to build ties between universities and research centers, increase collaboration between universities and industry, and reduce corruption in the distribution of European funds. The new law, Fotakis says, which will see most members elected by peers rather than being appointed, will allow researchers easier access to E.U. “structural funds,” designed to boost economic growth in poorer regions. He adds that more comprehensive legislation will follow to “fully reflect our ideas and policies for research.” Greek’s embattled scientists will be waiting apprehensively. ■ Edwin Cartlidge is a science writer in Rome. 1 MAY 2015 • VOL 348 ISSUE 6234
Published by AAAS
489
Downloaded from www.sciencemag.org on April 30, 2015
Beleaguered scientists are spending reserves to protect them from confiscation
FUNDING
Greece raids research funds to pay salaries By Edwin Cartlidge
PHOTO: AP PHOTO/THANASSIS STAVRAKIS
G
reece’s ongoing economic crisis and political shifts are taking a new toll on the country’s scientists, already reeling from cuts in salaries and research spending. Now, the government plans to confiscate research funding to plug a hole in the country’s ever worsening finances. And the left-wing government in power since January is pushing through a reform of higher education that scientists say will make universities more politicized and less meritocratic. The cash seizure was authorized by Greece’s Parliament in a heated and emotional session last week. The emergency decree forces local government and other state bodies, including universities and research centers, to transfer their cash reserves to the Bank of Greece in order to pay salaries and pensions of public-sector employees. As Science went to press, it remained unclear exactly how much money would be targeted and when it would be taken, but researchers expect the government to grab funds set aside to pay for research overheads. These amount to as much as 20% of the value of grants and are hived off to pay for expenses such as utility bills and temporary staff. Costas Fotakis, research vice minister in the government coalition led by the Syriza Party, describes the move as an “interim measure” that will see the money placed in accounts earning interest rates of 2.5% and then returned later, providing Greece wins favorable terms in its negotiations with the European Union over its national debt. “We do hope that a fair agreement in the ongoing negotiations for the Greek debt will be reached soon, by the end of June,” he said in an e-mail. “Then this measure will be waived.” Greek scientists are particularly resentful of the raid because their salaries have fallen about 30% in the past 3 years and because Greece spends just 0.6% of its gross domestic product on R&D, forcing them to rely more heavily on the European Union for support. To reduce the level of confiscations, many researchers are frantically shifting or spending as much of their overhead reserves as they can, in some cases by stocking up on consumables and paying Ph.D. students’ salaries for several months in advance. “I have little doubt that a massive exercise in hiding research money from the government is probably under way,” says Costas Synolakis,
a marine scientist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Researchers are also fighting an education reform that the government announced on 17 April without public consultation. The measure—expected to be approved by Parliament within the next few weeks—would scrap universities’ governing boards, remove existing rectors, and give students a large share of the votes to appoint new rectors. As such, it reverses many changes brought in by a 2011 law that sought to limit the powers of students and administrative staff. That earlier law proved highly contro-
composition and functions of the National Council for Research and Technology, an 11-member panel that advises the government on the organization and funding of research. The council had clashed with Fotakis earlier this year. Its members resigned en masse on 4 March because, they claimed, Fotakis had told the press a week earlier that the council was “illegal.” Fotakis denies making that assertion. He says instead that changes to the council instituted last year by the previous government created a “legal vacuum” that may have affected the smooth running of the country’s
The Bank of Greece needs cash to pay salaries of public employees.
versial and triggered huge student protests. But academics saw it as a positive step in reducing the power of political parties over university appointments. “Since the 1980s, university administrations [had] been voted, not on merit or administrative prowess, but on party credentials,” Synolakis says. In effect, he maintains, the latest reform would “move Greek higher education back about 30 years.” Mathematician Thanasis Fokas of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom agrees that the reform would weaken academic standards. He notes that, among other things, it lifts a cap on the length of time a student can take to complete his or her studies. It also scraps electronic voting in university elections, which, he says, may allow students to steal ballot boxes and intimidate voters, as they have done in the past. The new law also seeks to change the
SCIENCE sciencemag.org
research centers. But the chair of the now disbanded council, Joseph Sifakis, a computer scientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, claims that the government disliked a number of reforms that the council had proposed to build ties between universities and research centers, increase collaboration between universities and industry, and reduce corruption in the distribution of European funds. The new law, Fotakis says, which will see most members elected by peers rather than being appointed, will allow researchers easier access to E.U. “structural funds,” designed to boost economic growth in poorer regions. He adds that more comprehensive legislation will follow to “fully reflect our ideas and policies for research.” Greek’s embattled scientists will be waiting apprehensively. ■ Edwin Cartlidge is a science writer in Rome. 1 MAY 2015 • VOL 348 ISSUE 6234
Published by AAAS
489
Downloaded from www.sciencemag.org on April 30, 2015
Beleaguered scientists are spending reserves to protect them from confiscation
