Sajgalik: Max Planck Society Good Role Model for Slovak Academy of Sciences

Bratislava, January 6 (TASR) - A good example for the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV) is the German Max Planck Society, which always makes it into the top ten in any ranking of scientific institutions, but it needs to be said that its budget from the state exceeds SAV's many times over, academy head Pavol Sajgalik has said in an interview for TASR. "Rich countries invest a high percentage of their gross domestic product in science not because they are rich; they are rich because they invest such a high percentage of their GDP in science," stressed Sajgalik, mentioning Germany and Finland as examples. In former socialist countries, including Slovakia, there is pressure to obtain funds from grant agencies that require specific results at the end of a project, claimed the SAV head, adding that this tends to be a problem when setting their requirements. Nobel Laureate Klaus von Klitzing of the Max Planck Society, during his visit to SAV, spoke about how coming up with great ideas isn't just about designing projects, as meeting project milestones is binding and limits the imagination. "In our country, however, a scientist simply has no chance of engaging in science without having projects, so we are in a diametrically different situation," noted Sajgalik. zel/df/ko