The challenges, as well as the importance of science for business and the socio-economic environment, were discussed by participants in the debate ‘Where are you heading, science?’.
Professor Henryk Skarżyński, director of the Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing, drew attention to the need to foster trust in science, and, for this to happen, it is necessary to be familiar with its achievements. Unfortunately, this is a great problem in Poland. 'Poles are not familiar with our scientific achievements, which impacts trust in science and scientists', he stressed.
He mentioned the work conducted in 2018 on a monograph of Polish scientific achievements, where, after detailed analyses, the 34 best achievements from different areas of science were selected from 1,500 proposals. Not many people are familiar with them.
Besides insufficient knowledge of the achievements by scientists, the low level of innovation in the economy is also a challenge. As Leszek Stypułkowski, member of the Management Board of Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (BGK), reminded us, Poland ranks 25th in Europe in this area. It is true that we should be proud of this year's World Bank report, which lists Poland (along with South Korea and Chile) as one of the countries that have transformed from a low-developed to a developed economy in less than 25 years, but stresses that Poland's further development necessitates innovation.
Dariusz Wieczorek, Minister of Science and Higher Education, confirmed that the lack of awareness of the work and achievements of Polish scientific institutes is a problem which his ministry intends to tackle.
