After almost a year ago, they canceled a tender worth 1,5 million euros for scientific research projects and promised to call for a new one, the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports did not do so, and they claim that they did not have the money for it.
Minister Vesna Bratic made a decision on January 28 to cancel the competition for the awarding of grants, and the Ministry announced on that day that they would make "every effort to create the conditions for its new announcement as soon as possible."
"The new competition for the awarding of grants for scientific research projects was not announced in 2021, due to the lack of funds for this purpose, allocated in the budget for 2021, for the department of science", they told "Vijesta" from the department of Bratić.
In the decision of the minister from January, it is stated that they found several irregularities during the implementation of the procedure in the part of the announcement of the competition from 2020 as well as the formation of the ranking list.
The identified irregularities are reflected in, as they stated, the discrepancy between the published competition and the rulebook on the criteria for appointing evaluators, as well as several other laws. It is further stated that the conditions that the applicants were obliged to fulfill were the opposite of the conditions provided for in the regulations, which is why "all the participants in the competition were in a less favorable position than what the by-laws allow them to be, which created discriminatory treatment". After the evaluation of the projects, a ranking list was compiled, which, it is stated, does not provide any instruction on legal remedy.
The Ministry told "Vijesta" that they have taken over all the contractual obligations of the former Ministry of Science, which include the implementation of scholarships for doctoral research, grants for scientific research projects, the program of two centers of excellence, "which require huge funds and which, in their entirety, have been used for payment of all assumed obligations".
Before MPNKS was annexed, science was an independent department headed by a minister Sanja Damjanovic.
When asked by "Vijesti" whether they believe that the fact that the new competition was not launched caused damage, primarily to young scientists, the Ministry said that it "was never published consecutively, from year to year (for example, it was published in 2012, so in 2018), nor is there a document that defines the interval between the publication of this type of competition".
The publication of this competition, they explain, solely depends on the available budget. They also add that the delay in the adoption of the Budget Law additionally made it impossible to implement certain plans under the competence of the Department of Science. The budget was only adopted in mid-June.
However, it is questionable whether the competition will be announced next year as well.
"The Ministry plans to announce a new competition for the awarding of grants for scientific research projects in the coming year, if the budget allocated for the Ministry's science department for the year 2022 provides space for this purpose," the answer states.
One of the six key priorities of the Government in the draft medium-term work program for the period from 2022 to 2024 is "education and knowledge-based society", and one of the sub-goals is the strengthening of the national scientific, research and innovation infrastructure.
"As a confirmation of investment in innovation, our position on the Global Innovation Index (GII) within infrastructure will be improved by seven places - from 60th to 53rd. Investments in research and development will increase and we will allocate 0,5 percent of GDP for those purposes, which will contribute to increasing the total number of registered researchers in Montenegro to 1.600", is the ambition of the Government in this period.
The total number of registered researchers in Montenegro, according to the data of the Directorate of Statistics mentioned in the draft, is currently around 1.530.
For next year, according to the draft, it is planned to change the law on investment activity and incentive measures for the development of research and innovation, as well as to determine the strategy of scientific research activity for the period from 2022 to 2027.
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