More money for science, but where will it come from? Ministry of National Defense, Orlen, or KGHM - Minister Kulasek has an idea for the budget.

• Regarding the financing of science, Minister Marcin Kulasek admitted in an interview with WNP that the budget for 2026 is unsatisfactory, but is looking for new sources of financing – including 1% from the Ministry of National Defense budget, CIT, or support for state-owned companies.
• Young scientists are leaving for business because assistants earn only slightly more than the minimum wage; the planned reform is to link salaries and stipends to the minimum wage.
• The Ministry of Science and Higher Education is preparing a new evaluation, federalization of universities and limiting the power of rectors in order to increase the transparency and competitiveness of Polish science.

Would anyone notice if there was no Minister of Science in the government?

- The community would notice.

You failed to secure an increase in the budget for the environment, but maybe that doesn't matter.

"It didn't work out, but our ministry's budget hasn't been cut either. Education, culture, or sports have less than last year, and we're at 102 percent."

Science was supposed to be one of the government's priorities.

"Indeed, Minister Domański announced this on the Stock Exchange in February. I admit that the budget is not satisfactory for us, but at the same time, we are at risk of a budget deficit."

Due to the geopolitical situation, the safety of Polish people is and will remain our government's top priority. That's why we allocate the most funds to this purpose. I hope that some of these funds will also be spent on scientific research related to security and defense.

Security as an excuse to block the education budget

Is the Saxon Palace a security measure? Is TVP in liquidation a security measure? There are funds for this in the budget.

During the conference inaugurating the Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski tour, Minister Domański assured journalists that additional funding would be available throughout the year. Together with representative institutions, such as the Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland and the Central Council of Higher Education, we have already prepared several ideas on where to obtain these funds and how to best utilize them. I informed Minister Domański of this, indicating possible sources of funding.

And where can you find them?

- First, 1% of the Ministry of National Defense budget. That's 2 billion zlotys, and I've asked the Minister of Finance to increase spending on science by just under 4 billion.

How will you force the Ministry of National Defense to hand over the money?

"I won't force the Ministry of National Defense to do anything. I will initiate talks with Deputy Prime Minister Kosiniak-Kamysz on this matter. I have long argued that security issues cannot be separated from development and research. And I know that the Minister of National Defense shares a similar view."

What would you like to finance from the Ministry of National Defense budget? The Ministry of Defense will not finance the salaries of technical staff at PAN institutes.

"As I mentioned, this money would have to be allocated to defense-related research. But if we obtained it, we could reallocate some of our budget funds to other needs. We all know that we have many needs in science and education, and I'm working hard to ensure that as much of them as possible are funded."

But what specific purpose would you be transferring it to?

"Having additional funding for research allows the ministry's entire budget to be structured differently. Additional funding for research immediately translates into more funds for other needs, such as supporting research institutes, developing infrastructure, and student housing…"

But let's look at the broader picture – why should only the Ministry of National Defense have such a provision? What if every ministry allocated 1% of its budget to science? For example, the National Veterinary Institute asks me for financial support every year. Why couldn't it be financed more by the Ministry of Agriculture?

Or the idea of ​​an inter-ministerial roundtable and agreeing on obtaining funding from each ministry for areas of research directly related to the competence of a given ministry. However, implementing such a solution requires cooperation with Minister Domański and the Ministry of Finance.

At what level of legal act would this provision need to be made?

This is currently being analyzed and discussed. This idea was raised at an away meeting of the CRASP presidium in Lublin – it's a fresh initiative.

Another source of financing could be bonds. There's also the Polish Science Fund at BGK, established by our predecessors. It currently has relatively small funds allocated upon its creation, but it could be supplemented, for example, by allocating 1% of corporate income tax revenues. I also spoke with the Minister of State Assets about whether state-owned companies like Orlen, PGNiG, and KGHM could support Polish science in a similar way to how they support sports, for example.

And what did Wojciech Balczun say?

- We jointly decided that we need to think about this and develop solutions and mechanisms that would trigger such support.

We're only just beginning our journey, as we only now know what our budget will be. However, I hope that since Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Minister Andrzej Domański have twice assured us that there will be more funding for education, we will be able to work out solutions.

But you probably had an idea in advance what the budget would be?

"I expected this, so I returned from vacation early to secure at least an additional PLN 120 million. This needed to be secured, as we have 3% salary increases planned, including at Polish Academy of Sciences institutes, and the Ministry of Finance allocated PLN 27 million less than necessary in the draft budget."

The issue of funding science is one of the provisions in the coalition agreement. When will the Left say: we will go no further?

- But we should break up the coalition? Is that what you're suggesting?

The parties agreed to a higher level of financing. If the parties fail to honor the agreement, what is it worth?

Let me remind you that in 2024, we increased academic teachers' salaries by 30%. We donated PLN 1.5 billion in bonds to universities. The Prime Minister donated PLN 500 million in bonds to the National Science Centre. Since December 2023, we have allocated over PLN 450 million for renovations of student dormitories and PLN 255 million for the construction of new dormitories.

Thanks to the Left's efforts, student housing construction can be implemented as part of social housing projects, with subsidies of up to 80% of the project value. In 2024, we increased the income threshold for social scholarships and allocated an additional PLN 178 million for benefits, including social scholarships, rector's scholarships, and scholarships for people with disabilities. Further important changes, for example in university evaluation and digitalization, will be introduced in 2026.

Disastrous salaries in science. A reform that is still in the planning stages is supposed to help.

But even after this raise, a university assistant earns only a few zlotys more than the national minimum wage. How is this possible?

"This is the result of years of neglect. That's why we're working on an amendment to the Act on Higher Education and Science, which will eliminate such situations. Assistants' salaries need to be tied to the minimum wage. The days when people worked at universities solely for a sense of mission are long gone. I realize that without decisive action, we won't bridge the generation gap. Young people will be leaving academia for the business world, where they can immediately earn three times more and start families in peace."

We're seeing students increasingly abandoning their studies because they believe they don't earn a good living . We're trying to investigate this phenomenon to counteract it.

You're spending 300 million złoty on this. What effect is this supposed to have?

In some places, 60% of students drop out of their studies in their first year. This is alarming. We need to analyze this carefully, and the POL-on system will help us with this. Then, implement appropriate, effective measures. However, this takes time.

Maybe we just need to close the weak directions?

"We're looking at this more broadly. We're talking about merging universities or federalizing them. We encourage this and want the provisions in the amendment to the law to reward such solutions. According to our calculations, the number of students will drop dramatically in a year and a half."

Federalization, however, doesn't mean closing down universities, but rather increasing their scientific and research potential and enabling them to jointly pursue new fields of study. I hope that such federations, created by equal entities, will have the strength to compete with universities in Europe and around the world.

You mentioned the new law on higher education. Is the ministry preparing a reform?

"We've begun work on the amendment. Previously, our priorities included a new evaluation and the Act on the Polish Academy of Sciences. On September 30th, we're concluding the work of the team led by Minister Karolina Zioło-Pużuk, who worked on the new evaluation model, and we'll soon present our proposals. I have indications that the community is satisfied with the direction we're taking – evaluation will be expert-based, data-driven, and we'll move away from conventional grant and score systems."

Quality will be paramount. And an important change: alongside the familiar discipline-specific assessment, but under new rules, we want to propose elements of institutional assessment. This also addresses the community's demands. It's particularly important to me that the new assessment recognizes the difference between the work of academics and those involved in both research and teaching.

How will quality be measured?

"I don't want to preempt the facts until this is fully finalized. We'll present the details soon. Minister Karolina Zioło-Pużuk is working on the new evaluation."

And when do you want to present the amendment to the law on higher education?

We're thinking about the end of our term. The Ministry of Science and Higher Education has already received over 300 amendments. They're currently being analyzed by a team, which is being collaborated with by Deputy Minister Maria Mrówczyńska.

Too much power in the hands of rectors. Time for restrictions?

What is your vision for science reform?

"First and foremost, I believe we need to get back to basics. In my opinion , too much power currently rests with rectors . It needs to be limited. I believe we need to restore some control, for example, to the senate, because university councils haven't fully proven their worth. Where the rector has been able to subordinate them, they have become ostensibly supervisory bodies that, in practice, accept all his decisions. So it's hard to call it control."

But this is just one of the proposed changes; some of them concern procedures for reporting undesirable behavior and anti-mobbing committees. These changes are our plans for next year.

Is a luxury limousine a symbol of the rector's status in Poland?

- I find this and similar behavior reprehensible.

In the case of the Bydgoszcz rector's limousine, described by Onet, you signed a protocol stating that everything was OK. Deputy Minister Marek Gzik, in turn, said publicly that such excess was unacceptable.

- Formally, everything was done according to the letter of the law. But that doesn't mean I condone such actions; on the contrary, I consider them unethical.

After the reform you are planning, will doctoral students start earning better money, not PLN 3,500 as they do today?

"PhD students have made specific demands for change. In my ideal world, I'd like their scholarships to be tied to a multiple of the national minimum wage. But this has to be a decision by the entire government, because even if we include such a solution in the amendment to the law and the Minister of Finance doesn't accept it, it will remain only on paper."

But we're talking and trying to find common ground. Doctoral students are, of course, a very important group for me, because they're the ones who will shape the future of science.

Do you know what assistance a doctoral student is currently entitled to if she becomes pregnant? None. Will this law change that? Or is there a chance it could be changed sooner?

"I disagree with this statement. Doctoral students can already suspend their studies due to parenthood, and during this time they receive a stipend, the amount of which is calculated as for maternity benefits. Furthermore, we fully intend to ensure the social security of doctoral students, and a bill introducing mandatory sickness insurance contributions for doctoral students is already in the legislative process."

Once these regulations are implemented, doctoral students will be covered by the full social security system. We are currently reviewing the comments received during the public consultation process.

To sum up, doctoral students now have much greater support compared to previous doctoral studies, and after implementing the changes we propose, this support will be complete.

Time to shut down Polish science? According to the minister, there will be insufficient funds for a research vessel and electricity.

Are you a supporter of the grant system implemented by the National Science Centre?

- In the NCN edition – yes.

Why, then, hasn't the National Science Centre received more funding? It's appealing for 400 million to increase its success rate.

- Because we haven't received any more funding from the budget. I know that researchers are reaching out to us with such demands, but the Ministry of Finance is the last to act.

Such actions lead to stagnation. Professor Sankowski calculated that spending on science as a percentage of GDP has been declining for 20 years. Perhaps it's time to simply consider how to wind down this sector? What should we save on, what should we do less of?

- But today we are in an extraordinary situation, because we have not had a war before, nor a direct threat in the form of falling drones sent by Russia.

But you yourself wrote to Minister Domański about the projects we'll be short on funds for. So what should we give up – the Oceania ship? Or perhaps the 120 million for maintaining the supercomputer at AGH? As I understand it, that's where we are now.

"I used these examples to graphically demonstrate to the Ministry of Finance what the "small" funds we were granted meant in practice. I wanted Minister Domański's officials to clearly understand the consequences. Today, the entire government is aware that this money must be found . Just because it isn't there now doesn't mean it won't be available in 2026."

But how can you plan personnel policy, research, investments or infrastructure maintenance under such conditions?

- Universities have the option of using bonds, and this is a form of security that allows them to function until additional funds become available and budget shifts occur.

Instead of stable funding, we have a promise that maybe something will be found in October.

- I hope it will be sooner, because in October it is difficult to spend such funds.

There is no comprehensive, sensible reform of the financing of this system.

- That's true, but as a responsible person who thinks in terms of the state, I know that as long as the war lasts, we will be allocating more and more funds – ultimately up to 5% of GDP – to defense and security.

Drones over Poland, in my opinion, are the beginning of a situation that will repeat itself. Until this war ends, we must function within these realities, because what good is it to produce good science if it has to be done in Russian?

Even within what you have, you can make shifts.

We continue to strive to manage our available funds as best we can, but the problem is that they are insufficient – ​​they cannot cover all the valuable initiatives that deserve support. In previous years, we managed to generate savings at the end of the year, which we transferred to universities and research institutes.

Many rectors have no interest in this changing. And yet you propose that the community should fix the law itself. Those who bought the Lexus will decide about it.

"We will, of course, make the decision at the ministry, but it can't be like under our predecessors, when Minister Czarnek arbitrarily dictated what should be done. The changes are also being consulted with doctoral students and members of the Student Parliament."

We talk a lot about what you can't afford. Where did the idea come from to fund the reconstruction of science in Ukraine when our own research is so short of funds?

- This was Deputy Minister Andrzej Szeptycki's idea; it wasn't discussed with me. So this question should be directed to him.

He presented opponents of the idea in the graphic as Russian trolls.

"I've already talked to him about this. However, I want to emphasize that each deputy minister takes responsibility for their words and for what they publish. And they don't consult with the ministry about it."

Is Minister Sheptytsky about to resign?

- I don't know anything about it.