Young Researchers in Romania survival and hope Crina Cismas

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Young Researchers in Romania survival and
hopeCrina Cismas

• Ad Astra Association of Romanian Scientists
• contact_at_ad-astra.ro
• www.ad-astra.ro
• Details http//www.ad-astra.ro/journal/3/?langro
  

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BACKGROUND (I)
RD Manpower in Romania
Private sector Governmental sector High-education
sector
Source Report of the Romanian Ministry for
Education and Research (published in 2004)
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BACKGROUND (II)
Age Distribution of RD Manpower
Source Report of the Romanian Ministry for
Education and Research (published in 2004)
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CAUSES FOR THE DRAMATIC DECREASE IN RD
MANPOWER IN ROMANIA

• Severe reduction in the number of students due to
  the demographic tendencies after 1990
  (unavoidable)
• Reduction of the desire of youth for performance
  in science
• The migration of young researchers so called
  brain drain

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• Salaries, infrastructure and prestige found in US
  RD institutions make it difficult for any
  country, from Japan to Canada and EU, to retain
  their own skilled young people and research staff
• Beyond the global view of the brain drain,
  particular reasons apply to post-communist
  countries
• However, the labour market in Romania cannot
  absorb all graduates from Romanian universities
  
• A major concern is that a significant number from
  the top-graduates are leaving the country

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• Reliable statistics are not available to
  determine levels of brain drain over the past
  several years
• Estimations
• Between 1990-2000, more than 30 of the higher
  educated emigrants went to Germany, and about 10
  to the US and France
• In 2001, more than 25 of the emigrants were
  professionals including engineers, physicians and
  economists
• According to a 2000 survey, 66 of Romanians
  students are likely to emigrate

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1. Low funding of the RD sector (0.2 GDP for
2000-2004)
RD Expenses (millions USD)
Total Entrepreneurial sector Governmental
sector High-education sector Public expanses - 1.
prediction Public expanses - 2. prediction
Source Report of the Romanian Ministry for
Education and Research (published in 2004)
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• 1. Low funding of the RD sector
• Inadequate work conditions (satisfaction of young
  researchers strongly depends on them) from the
  paucity of literature to old equipment, and the
  situation is more complicated for those in
  experimental sciences
• Diminishing of relative income and of the social
  prestige of scientific, academic and engineering
  staff

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2. Bad management of the existing funds

• Lack of transparency in the evaluation process of
  the grants proposals
• Lack of statistics on RD and/or statistics are
  not open to public
• Absence of an organism for unbiased evaluation of
  research results
• A paradoxical gap when good funding a lot of
  money to support the technology, but almost no
  money to support personnel (median salary of
  young scientist 100 EU)
• An typical example of bad management the 2002
  budget provided by government for the National
  Library of Physics. Funds became available with a
  9 months delay, so as of December 2002 no
  international journal published in 2002 was
  received at the Library

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3. Mentality

• Personal connections matter more than scientific
  or educational skills
• Quantitative criterion as promotion criterion
  favors graphomania, and there are many a
  situation when the number of publications is more
  important than the content itself - bibliometric
  analysis is not employed in evaluating research
  performances in Romania
• Many Romanian scientists and professors traveled
  abroad and understand how quality science is
  done few try to apply these lessons back in
  Romania

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3. Mentality

• While the deficit of both results and motivation
  is understandable when the basic elements
  required for research are lacking, and while it
  certainly cannot be said that Romanian
  researchers are lazy, unfortunately in some cases
  this apathy has been taken to unimaginable
  extremes, becoming a self-defeating excuse to
  simply give up
• The enthusiasm of any youth for research - an
  extra-curricular activity in Romania, with all
  its sleepless nights and its weekends lost in the
  lab - is ultimately related to the power of
  example

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Many of these problems have been heard before and
still major improvements seem far away, but one
good intention is the implementation of special
aimed grants for young researchers

• CNCSIS (National University Research Council) is
  the main institution from Romania which allocates
  funds for high quality research and postgraduate
  training in the Romanian universities. It
  administrates only about 5 from the RD
  expenditure. However, lack of transparency in
  awarding CNCSIS money, lack of public
  accountability, lack of communication with the
  research community adds a BIG question mark to
  CNCSIS activity
• TD programme (for PhD students)
• initiated in fall 2002
• for full time PhD students, younger than 30 years
  old
• 2002 - 74 grants awarded, 360 euros per PhD
  student per year 245 applications
• 2003 57 grants awarded, 500 euros, 207
  applications
• 2004 169 grants awarded, 700-1700 euros, 460
  applications

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• - AT programme (for researchers under 35)
• started in 2000 the project manager should be
  a PhD student or should have a PhD 1-5
  scientists per project much freedom in the type
  of expenses that can be covered
• 2001-2002 418 grants awarded (232 new, 186
  continued 895 applications) average grant 1160
  euros per project per year 307-8.457 eurostotal
  budget 484 654 euros
• money paid later than planned call for
  proposals in November 2001 contracts signed in
  July (rather than April, as planned) 30 of
  funding paid in September 2002, the rest of 70
  in December 2002. However, the results of the
  projects were due for evaluation in November
  2002, i.e. before the grant was paid.
• 2002-2003 218 new grants awarded (1.000-6.000
  euros), 792 applications
• 2003-2004 96 new grants awarded (880-13600
  euros), 195 applications
• the programme encourages young researchers and
  prepares them for open competition for grants

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Hopes

• There are situations when the interest for
  science and the good managerial skills of
  department heads from some Romanian research
  units represent the decisive factors in pushing
  toward quality research
• The same skills of these heads of laboratories
  lead to partnership in international fellowships
  (Tempus, Socrates, etc), which promote important
  collaborations between Romanian laboratories and
  prestigious laboratories abroad

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Hope

• These fellowships promote a lot of PhD students,
  and, what is very important, these PhD students
  find the possibility to keep their own research
  work back home
• Also, these research units further benefit from
  international fellowships by bringing in know-how
  and high quality scientific work, thanks to the
  PhD students

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Concluding remarks (I) institutional level

• - Making science in post-communist Romania, even
  within the context of a successful ERA
  enlargement, is possible only if a suitable RD
  framework will be provided at the national level
• - A new technocratic leadership and a proper
  consideration of RD work are the only way to
  accomplish the above. The worst economic
  circumstances may not explain the disregard of
  RD necessities, for real performance

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Concluding remarks (II)

• Invite qualified, well-known scientists, some
  among them expatriates, to teach and do research
  in Romania provide them with appropriate
  conditions to live and work
• As the country experiences brain-drain at
  increasing levels, returning to Romania to teach
  is, in itself, the best starting point for
  rebuilding Romania's human resources. This needs
  to be a large-scale solution, i.e. the government
  needs to sanction it.

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Concluding remarks (III) individual level

• There are no adequate conditions, but if we
  continue to wait for someone else to do
  something, we might wait a lifetime. It is up to
  us, those who believe in research, motivated
  scientists, both expatriates and working in
  Romania, to drive this change
• Our only option, in principle, is to never give
  up - it sounds so easy, but in fact it is
  extremely hard, because we have to persevere and
  be patient in the same time

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• References
• Speranta Avram, Research in Natural Sciences - a
  Romanian perspective, Ad Astra journal
• Vlad Avrigeanu, Making science in post-communist
  Romania?, Ad Astra journal
• Razvan Florian, Programmes for Young Scientist in
  Romania, http//www.ad-astra.ro/events/5/presentat
  ion.pdf
• Sergiu Moroianu, Why doing research in Romania is
  a brilliant idea, Ad Astra journal
• Serban D. Costa , What if we were to return to
  Romania?, Ad Astra journal
• Dan Pantos, Why would I return to Romania to be a
  scientist? Ad Astra journal
• Liviu Giosan, Tudor I. Oprea, Science in
  post-communist Romania The future is not
  inviting, Ad Astra journal
• The analysis of National Plan for RD and
  Innovation in 2003, Romanian Ministry for
  Education and Research http//www.mct.ro/web/2/Ana
  liza20PNCDI20pe20anul20200320-201220MAI202
  004.pdf
• Tascu,M-V, Noiftsinger,J , Bowers,S. The Problem
  of Post-Communist Education The Romanian
  Example, The Journal of Social, Political and
  Economic Studies 2002, 27, 203