Amendments to the rules on the employment of foreign researchers

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According to the amendment of the Act on Foreigners (whose provisions came into force in April this year), the National Contact Point (KPK) informs research units (universities, institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences and research institutes) employing foreigners to carry out scientific research or development works that they should be approved in advance for this purpose by the Minister of the Interior and Administration. According to the regulations, the approval of a unit is a condition for issuing a national visa and/or a temporary residence permit for the purpose of conducting scientific research to a foreigner, and therefore it may prolong the recruitment process of a foreign employee. This provision is referred to in Chapter 7 of Article 151 of the Act on Foreigners. (We recommend that you read this Chapter as it contains other requirements, such as the agreement concluded with the researcher.)
The approval of the aforementioned units takes place at their request. The application should contain, inter alia, general information about the fact that the unit will accept foreigners for the above purpose within the framework of projects and not only (no foreigners’ data need to be provided), about the existence of the unit for at least 5 years before submitting the application and conducting scientific activity during that time independently and continuously. The letter should be accompanied by documents confirming the fulfilment of these conditions. The issuance of a decision may take between 30 and 60 days, as the applications are also consulted with other authorities, such as the Border Guard or the Internal Security Agency. The paper version of the application should be sent by post to the Ministry of the Interior and Administration.
The current list of approved scientific entities is to be published in the official journal of the Minister in charge of internal affairs (however, it is not yet available online; so far few entities have applied to the Ministry of the Interior and Administration).
It is recommended that scientific units apply for approval as mentioned above to improve the processes of employing foreigners.

Information on the approval of foreigners is available on the website of the Ministry of Interior and Administration and at the telephone number of the Ministry: +48 22 60 133 34

2nd Seminar about HR Excellence in Research award for Polish institutions

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On January 18, 2019, at the University of Warsaw Library(BUW), the second edition of the Seminar for institutions applying and implementing the principles related to the distinction EC – HR Excellence in Research was held. The National Contact Point organised the meeting. About 60 participants representing universities, institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences and research institutes participated in it, max. one person was representing the unit. The meeting program was based on new issues related to the implementation of the Charter and Code principles, changes in conducting the process of obtaining the award and basic information related to HRS4R. The speech of dr Andrzej Kurkiewicz, deputy director in the Department of Innovation and Development at the Ministry of Science and Higher Education – “Law 2.0 and the HRS4R Strategy”.
Dr Katarzyna Świerk, Head of the Science Bureau, Plenipotentiary of UG on Open Access to publications and results of scientific research at UG, presented issues related to communication in the HR Excellence in Research process and topics related to Open Access. Dr Anna Stachowiak-Szrejbrowska, Chairwoman of the HR Working Group at the Institute of Plant Genetics, Polish Academy of Sciences, presented the methods of effective implementation of the HRS4R Strategy.
HRS4R coordinator at IUNG-PIB and the EC accessor – dr Monika Kowalik, ran one of five discussion panels entitled “How to effectively promote HR distinction in the internal and the external environment?”. Other groups included the following issues:
• How to prepare and implement an Action Plan?
• How to conduct an internal assessment of the implementation of the Charter and the Code?
• How to enforce the rules of the Charter and the Code systematically?
• How to motivate employees and doctoral candidates of the institution to develop a career?
Summary of the meeting was made by Ms Anna Wiśniewska – a representative of the NCP (KPK).

Open Science Conference 2018 – Brussels

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On November 21, 2018, an international conference “Open Science Conference 2018” took place in Brussels. The EC – the Directorate-General for Science and Innovation (DG RTD), the Belgian Federal Office for Science (BELSPO), the authorities of the regions of Wallonia, Flanders and the Central Region of Brussels were organisers of the conference. The theme of the conference was the direction of changes in the policy of the EC and individual member states in the field of Open Science.

Statements by representatives of the European Commission, representatives of the Belgian regions, representatives of France and a panel discussions in which international experts took part (including Belgium, Slovenia, Germany, France and Great Britain) and conference participants gave a picture of opportunities, concerns and actions, which should be urgently undertaken by the EC and MS in the field of Open Science.

The conference also presented examples of good practices in the field of Open Science – tools developed for many years, such as the ORFEO repository (Belgium) and those awaiting implementation as part of the National Open Science Plan – LIBER (France), as well as the results of the pilot project “Mutual Learning exercise “. One of the essential elements of the discussion was the proposal to include Open Science indicators for the evaluation of researchers employed and recruited in the European Research Area as a mandatory element of good practices related to the HR Strategy for Researchers (HRS4R) and KE-HR Excellence in Research.

Significant from participating in scientific projects for the future perspective (FP9) is more emphasis on the implementation of Open Science activities by grant recipients, eg. Preparation of Plans – Data Management Plans, dynamic infrastructure development in the field of Open Science and many analyses, e.g. how to stimulate the attractiveness of Open Science among scientists and scientific units (EC Open Science Policy Platform activities). The conference also discussed issues related to the launch of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) platform and the implementation of the FAIR guidelines (Findable – searchable, Accessible – available, Interoperable – interoperable, Reusable – reusable) for the management of test results.

Participation in the conference of the IUNG-PIB representative – dr Monika Kowalik, coordinator for HRS4R, was funded by the BioEcon project.

Essential links regarding Open Science:

CEON Open Science
OpenAIRE

First Polish e-learning platform

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The Ministry of Science and Higher Education, together with the Young Science Foundation (Fundacja Nauki Polskej – FNP) and partners, 30th October launched the first Polish educational platform of the Polish MOOC. The platform is a reliable and free source of knowledge available online for everyone, regardless of age and place of residence. More on the NCBiR website – link .
Link to the POLISH MOOK educational platform – here.