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Shkruar nga Irena Beqiraj
Paradoxically, the bill stipulates that the Prime Minister, who has never dealt with science in his life, should head the Council for Science and Scientific Research...
A Ministry for Science and Scientific Research, at first glance, seems a very interesting idea as well as dangerous.
I find it interesting because in the last two decades there has been an increase in scientific advisory systems for governments, as well as an increase in "knowledge brokers", or bodies that work to improve the use of scientific research in policy-making but also that world experience shows that science is likely to flourish more quickly in a centralized research environment that balances the need for public support, effective organization, and political accountability with scientific independence and institutional diversity.
I consider it dangerous because the centralized research environment carries the risk of aligning science with political objectives, risking linking it to the party goals of the governing majority. Another danger of the centralization of scientific research may be related to its focus on the utilitarian needs of government, thus eroding support for long-term investment in basic exploratory research which, although unrelated to the utilitarian needs of the moment, is extremely useful to science.
Although political objectives have not always been bad for science, they have often pushed science and the public resources associated with it away from issues outside the focus of governments. For example, the space program, which was essentially an applied research and engineering program, was driven by political objectives in the US and the dynamics of the Cold War. Yet he supported and stimulated scientific research of all kinds, inspiring a generation of young researchers to pursue careers in physics, mathematics, and engineering. It must be said that the deep entanglement of science with the technological and military goals of the government led science and the public resources with which it was financed to focus on the improvement of social and environmental conditions.
While scientific independence tries to keep science away from policy-making needs, challenges that need knowledge require greater engagement of the entire scientific corpus in policy-making processes.
In order for the "science-politics" marriage to work, mechanisms must be provided for science to maintain sufficient independence to preserve its integrity, demonstrating its importance and response to public and political needs.
Does the new bill provide government support for science by making it a "Socratic partner" in policymaking, or does it simply extend government control over scientific research?
I am focusing on a simple but very significant fact:
Important tasks such as: orientation of supporting policies for science and scientific research; recommendations for determining priority scientific fields and their financing mechanisms; recommendations for the drafting of strategies and medium-term science and research programs, as well as for monitoring the national science and research system, will be carried out by the National Council for Science and Scientific Research. These tasks in themselves require that the council be led and composed of scientifically minded people, rather than political appointees.
Paradoxically, the draft law stipulates that the Prime Minister, who has never dealt with science in his life, should head the Council for Science and Scientific Research. But not only that, 7 other members of the Council are ministers who rarely in the history of Albanian governments have even a peripheral connection with science. Meanwhile, the other members of the committee are either appointed by the ministers or elected by the staff of the agencies under the government.
Well, the one who while drinking wine, in Turkey, Dubai or in the government villa in Dhërmi determines how much the tunnel, the port, the road will cost, or who will take Sazan or Zvrnec, while drinking wine will determine the goals why not the hypotheses and the results of what little scientific research we have.
There was no other way science could not be an independent island in a personalistic autocracy, on the contrary, from now on the autocracy will be the heart of science.
Lini një Përgjigje