Bratislava, SlovakiaWIKIMEDIA, STANO NOVAKAfter the fall of the Iron Curtain, optimism about the future spread across former Eastern-block countries like Slovakia. When it came to science, the cause for confidence seemed clear—eliminating ideological constraints from academia allowed scientists to freely collaborate with their foreign colleagues, to study and work in the best laboratories abroad, and to compete for research funding. Talented young scientists had every expectation of flourishing.
But after 20 years of transformation, how do Slovak scientists fare when compared to their international colleagues? The polite answer is: not very well. By any measure, Slovakia ranks far behind comparable European countries. For example, based on the number of citations per publication, Slovakia falls behind Albania and Mauritius, in 175th place (as of December 2013). Furthermore, the current number of European Research Council grants awarded to Slovak scientists is one.
So what went wrong? The problem is simple: chronic underfunding of research in Slovakia. Indeed, investment in science have been chronically low, accounting for only around 0.63 percent of Slovakia’s gross domestic product in 2011. Increasing spending on research could elevate science in Slovakia to a more appropriate level.
In fact, this hypothesis ...
