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The president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences wrote a strong letter of protest To László Palkovics After an incident that did not occur even in the Kádár regime and caused great outrage, it resulted in an article in Klubrádió. Tamás Freund and it is not a bloody opposition, so the criticisms expressed in the letter cannot be slandered by the government as a political attack.
As we wrote, the president of one of OTKA’s colleges announced his resignation after it turned out that the Ministry of Innovation and Technology had rewritten the proposal of the professional jury on research applications worthy of support. There has been no example of such an intervention in the 35-year history of OTKA.
The case sparked outrage among academic circles, as the Palkovics overwritten the distribution of OTKA funds due to supporters of Orban’s science policy. That is, the scientific aspects were overwritten for political reasons, while the Palkovics had previously promised that this could not happen.
Tamás Freund began his letter by saying that “one of the pillars of his presidential program was to put communication with the government on a new basis, to build mutual trust.” However, this confidence has obviously already been affected:
I was surprised to learn that NKFIH (National Office for Research, Development and Innovation, legal successor to OTKA – ed.) In the case of each request for basic research, the ranking established by the expert panels was modified and, in the most striking case, a proposal ranked last by the panel was also supported by a ministerial decision.
– wrote the president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
“In principle, I do not agree that the ranking of universities representing professional scientific consensus can be overridden, but it is unprecedented for the Minister or President of the NKFIH to award a grant for the qualification of a professional university,” Tamás Freund said. He also recalled that until the amendment of the law last year, it was legally impossible to overwrite bidding decisions in this way. In amending the law, several scientists and scientific organizations indicated that it was dangerous to grant such a license to the ministry.
“The state has no right to decide on the issue of scientific truth, only practitioners of science have the right to evaluate scientific research”
– the president of the Academy cited the Basic Law.
According to Tamás Freund, Palkovics’ decision “endangers the credibility of the system” because it overwritten the professional work of national and foreign investigators at a stroke. Therefore, he asked the Minister to reconsider the decision and to make it legal again so that bidding decisions could not be overwritten in this way.
Finally, Freund invited Palkovics to have lunch at the Academy, indicating that he was still ready to talk with the government.
Featured image: MTI / Koszticsák Szilárd
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