There is more to it than just the Act

Abstract

The article formulates the determinants of sound functioning of the Polish Academy of Sciences [Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN], pushing aside the level or standard of research conducted at the PAN – the crucial aspect indeed, but outside the article’s scope. For years, there have been calls for the need to reform the
Academy, yet none of the public authorities has ever put forward the underlying idea behind the desired change (and maybe it’s for the best, after all): is it to be about squaring accounts with the past, thorough vetting, or a refurbishment of the structure? Instead, the arrogant command: “Reform yourselves, or we’ll reform you!” was meant to suffice. After years of planning and trying, a project was finally developed (not yet fully known to the community) whose brightest point has been to establish an Assembly of Directors of Scientific Units, with the body’s chairperson becoming member of the PAN’s Presidium (executive board).
A chance has therefore cropped up that tensions between the institutes and the headquarters would be eliminated and peace will come. The discussions surrounding the legislation have proposed no other topics whose potential impact on calming the situation and enhancing the Academy’s prestige is no less significant.
What I have in mind is, primarily, developing a capital structure management, so that the financial contingency thus built might assist and support those institutes which face a financial crisis. As the law in question is underway and its completion date keeps getting pushed back, regulations that would enable
transfer of monies to a legally distinct entity subordinate to the headquarters are worth considering. Furthermore, it is the Academy that ought to have the right restored to it to distribute the funds allotted to its institutes, since it is the chairperson and the Presidium that have the fullest knowledge about their subordinate institutes. It is paradoxical that the Academy evaluates the institutes while the Ministry of Science and Higher Education allocates funds. Another paradox is that institute directors are afraid of this particular change. I am moreover concerned about the Academy’s historically (or, logically) conditioned obligations
with respect to the scientific societies or academic associations that reside, in cramped conditions, at the Staszic Palace. Affiliated to the Presidium has been the Scientific Societies Council, so taking care of these bodies is no more a voluntary action. The PAN authorities have moreover appeared completely indifferent to the needs of the Academy staff (and members). The dispensary, which was a real blessing particularly for pensioners, has been dismantled. The cafés where one could meet with associates from the other units and/or with doctoral students have been closed down. In the winter, the Palace remains permanently underheated whereas the headquarters is entitled to charge high rents for long-term rental spaces. The institutes also have to pay high fees for renting prestigious venues or halls there within. Is it still not surprising that the headquarters has mainly become a collector of benefits from the institutes? Should the Polish Academy of Sciences remain an integrated structure composed of corporations, a headquarters and the institutes, it has to rebuild its relations with its immediate environment and show care, kindness and solidarity towards all
these units.