Borisov to shut down Bulgarian Academy of Science

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov has outraged the academic community by his latest cost-cutting move to close the state's oldest scientific body, the Bulgarian Academy of Science. Under the plan, which has been presented as a "restructuring" of the 141-year-old institution, the government would only continue to fund departments that directly serve the state, such as the meteorological and the seismological institutes. "The rest will join the universities," Mr Borisov said. The academy, which was set up as the Bulgarian Literary Society in September 1869 by a group of leading scholars and intellectuals, is older than the modern Bulgarian state; Ottoman rule ended in 1878. The society was renamed the Academy of Science in 1911. Bulgarian rulers have often been enraged by academics but no-one – not even Communist strongman Todor Zhivkov, who Mr Borisov served as a bodyguard – has ever dared shut down the institution. Many have seen the issue as symbolic of today's Bulgaria; Mr Borisov, a burly former policeman who speaks no foreign languages and is often ridiculed about his general level of knowledge, suppressing the intellectual side of the country.

"The black belt crushes the intellect," said Sergei Stanishev, leader of the main opposition Socialist Party, referring to Mr Borisov's karate skills. On Tuesday evening (16 November), around 1,000 scientists and employees of the academy protested at a vigil with lit candles in front of their main building in central Sofia. They demanded that the government restore their truncated 2010 budget so they can receive their full salaries and have heating in their studies and laboratories. The same day, around 3,000 Sofia University students rallied in front of parliament to protest what they believe to be an insufficient education budget. The protesters booed parliamentary speaker Tsetska Tsacheva, a close Borisov loyalist.

Finance minister Simeon Djankov, previously a World Bank economist, is widely seen as the inspiration behind the controversial academy reform. He has criticised the institution's inefficiency and has enraged its members by calling them "feudal old men." Mr Djankov argued that science in Bulgaria needs to be re-shaped the American way by moving its centres to the universities. However, many in the academic community disagree that raising efficiency necessarily requires dismantling a traditional institution. The academy ranks 374th among 4,050 scientific bodies across the world, the Sofia daily Trud reported, and Bulgaria is bottom of the EU in terms of research and innovation. The EU Commission recently described it as the least productive and least energy-efficient economy of all 27 member states.

News source: waz.euobserver.com link: article