Advisers ‘bypassed’ on Polish reforms

Secrecy around changes to research agency raises fears, but science ministry defends its approach

Poland’s statutory advisory body on science and higher education has been kept in the dark on legislative changes to the country’s national science funder, according to its chair.

Since 2021, Poland’s science minister Przemysław Czarnek (pictured) has been promising reforms to the National Science Centre (NCN), telling university rectors he is “extremely dissatisfied with what has been happening” there, according to reports. But few details have emerged about the government’s plans.