The science budget is frozen. "Politicians talk about innovation, but they're not interested in it."

• The government has presented a draft budget for 2026, with spending on science and higher education remaining virtually unchanged relative to GDP. It is planned at PLN 44.26 billion.
• The National Science Centre's budget will increase by a symbolic 1.4%, to approximately PLN 1.7 billion; researchers had been counting on stable and significantly higher funding.
• Scientists who just a few months ago heard Prime Minister Donald Tusk announce a "breakthrough year" are now speaking of disappointment and the lack of a real fight for higher expenditures.

"What's the difference between a PhD student and a balcony? A balcony can support a family," Dr. Piotr Sankowski, director of Poland's youngest state research institute, IDEAS, posted this bitter joke on social media. It's a commentary on the draft budget for 2026, which the government published last week. It shows that spending on science and higher education is practically stagnant. In 2026, it is planned to reach PLN 44.26 billion.

PLN 41.12 billion is to be allocated to managing the higher education and science system, including educating students, doctoral candidates, and research staff. PLN 3.14 billion is to be allocated to research with practical applications. However, this funding is divided between the Ministry of Science and Higher Education and its subordinate agencies, and the Ministry of National Defense.

Not only will university spending remain unchanged, but so will the budget for the National Science Centre (NCN), funding for which researchers fought last fall. At that time, the government briefly relented and funding for the agency was increased by PLN 100 million. In the fall, the Prime Minister decided to provide the agency with half a billion zloty in bonds. However, this is a temporary measure; researchers had been counting on stable funding. This year's budget plans a 1.4% increase in NCN funding. The agency's budget once again includes approximately PLN 1.7 billion (although the NCN may finally cash in the bonds it received from the government last year , which will cover the budget for current competitions).

Many words were said, today there is disappointment

Sankowski's post is not isolated. Researchers are increasingly open about their disappointment with government policy. Professor Michał Tomza from the Institute of Theoretical Physics, Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, was among those who met with Prime Minister Donald Tusk when he announced at the turn of the year that science would be a priority .

The Prime Minister made such declarations both in November, when he met with young scientists, and in February during the "Breakthrough Year" conference at the Warsaw Stock Exchange. He also did so at two meetings organized by the Chancellery with a group of researchers.

"In February, when the Prime Minister announced the 'breakthrough year,' we had high hopes. Much was said about the importance of supporting and funding science. Today, there's disappointment among scientists. We feel that no one in the government is actually trying to increase funding. Even the Ministry of Science is extremely conservative, focusing on popularization," says Professor Tomza. Others who participated in the science discussions at the time expressed similar opinions.

Dariusz Wieczorek has written a shocking letter. Is Marcin Kulasek also fighting?

Meanwhile, the government is well aware of the consequences of low funding for science. A year ago, in a letter to Andrzej Domański, then-Minister of Science and Higher Education Dariusz Wieczorek outlined the consequences of continued low funding. He recalled that current spending on science is the lowest in the 21st century. He added that any recovery in spending would require an increase of approximately 0.05% of GDP annually, or roughly PLN 2 billion.

The former Minister of Science warned that the budget allocation for higher education and science was so low that it would effectively "limit or close the path to higher education for some young people." He also claimed that this would lead to the "demobilization of top scientists" because salary increases at universities were not keeping pace with the minimum wage. He warned that "it is necessary to guarantee doctoral students the means to support themselves " (emphasis in the original document).

Is Marcin Kulasek following a similar path? We requested access to the Minister's entire correspondence with Finance Minister Andrzej Domański. However, we have not yet received it. However, we did hear from a senior official in the Ministry of Science about the background of the budget negotiations.

According to our source, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MNiSW) leadership wanted to increase the ministry's budget by PLN 1.8 billion . However, the Ministry of Finance rejected this. The key arguments were said to be the budget deficit and military spending. "This isn't an ideal situation for us, but some other ministries have budget cuts compared to last year; ours is a slight increase, but it's still an increase," our source argues.

The ministry is also expected to save money by transferring existing expenditures to funds from other budget baskets. This is what happened, for example, with funds for student housing – PLN 600 million per year has been allocated to the Subsidy Fund for this purpose.

However, as our interlocutor points out, this year's science funding will also be distributed from many other baskets that aren't included in the "science and higher education" category. This includes KPO projects, which are due in 2026. Our interlocutor argues that this funding also goes to scientists.

Minister Dariusz Wieczorek's efforts last year paid off, with the government providing universities with PLN 1.5 billion in bonds. Universities could spend this money on essential renovations, for example. We haven't heard any such announcements for the next fiscal year.

Not only increased funding, but also reform

"Science has been starved for years, and unfortunately, it seems to be a systemic phenomenon. Although politicians talk about innovation, they are simply not interested," says Professor Przemysław Hensel, head of the Department of Entrepreneurship and Management Systems at the Faculty of Management at the University of Warsaw. In an interview with WNP, he adds that funding levels are designed to maintain the staff necessary for teaching, not to provide the Polish economy with an innovative boost.

The result of low investment is, for example, the continuing decline in the number of Polish universities in the Shanghai rankings. This year, seven of them made it into the top 500. For comparison: in 2022, there were 11, in 2023 – nine, and in 2024 – eight.

Some researchers, however, point out that any discussion about increasing funding must be coupled with a reform of the higher education system. This, however, is not in sight. The Ministry is working on new university evaluation rules (which determine the share of the pie allocated to a given institution). Although this is intended to cover the period from January 1, 2026, work on the detailed solutions is still ongoing.

Meanwhile, Professor Hensel points out that, given the decreasing student population, it would be worthwhile to consider measures such as reducing the number of lecturers while maintaining funding levels. However, there are no such plans.