On May 4-5, 2023, a meeting of representatives of national advisory councils of the ministries of science, "Meeting of the Secretaries of the National Advisory Council for Science and Technology Policy", was held in Prague. The Polish Ministry was represented by an employee of our Faculty, prof. dr hab. Dariusz J. Gwiazdowicz from the Science Policy Committee.
The meeting was organized by the Office of the Council for Development and Innovation, a consultative body of the government of the Czech Republic in the field of science, research and innovation. The participants were representatives of Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Iceland, Lithuania, Latvia, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Switzerland.
The main theme of the discussion was the protection of science and open access to scientific research. The participants discussed, among others, the state of knowledge protection in the European Union and the position on scientific cooperation with China. Reference was also made to the current situation in Ukraine and the problem of the participation of Russian scientists in various types of projects and research conducted in cooperation with European representatives of science. In addition, it was discussed how to balance knowledge security and access control to the so-called sensitive technologies (military, medical, food production).
One of the main conclusions was a proposal for a broad discussion to develop national strategies combining freedom and openness of scientific research, international cooperation with limitations in the transfer of knowledge to countries that in the future may use it to build a large economic potential and direct it against the interests of, for example, Poland.
The next meeting will occur in Belgium on 16-17 November 2023.