Dear Prime Minister, dear Chair of the Parliament,
With great anxiety I am receiving news of the planned restructuring the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
I can say that I have collaborated with one of its researchers, xxxxxxxxxxxx, for a decade. My work would not have been possible without his input, and has led to results published in the international peer-reviewed scientific journals and the training of many young scientists who are now productive researchers in industry or academia.
Any time an established structure is intended to undergo changes, the risks are large. Not always can the consequences of proposed changes be predicted, often they turn out to be the opposite of what was intended. To drastically change a working structure and to expect that its efficiency will increase is often nothing more than wishful thinking.
Everyone who has worked in Science knows that it takes decades to build up a productive scientific organization, especially nowadays, when the state-of-the-art in scientific research is extremely high.
It is good to remember the saying: “Never change a winning team”.
The world has seen before how a working scientific structure has been destroyed: in the former Soviet Union. Formerly world-class research, today the level has dropped enormously. The worst thing is that the young generation does not see in research an interesting life career option any more. That is terrible. Please do not make the same mistake!
Bulgaria needs an identifiable “flagship” in research, as in every other field of human activity – do not sink it!
Sincerely,
S. Schiller
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Prof. Stephan Schiller, Ph.D.
Institut für Experimentalphysik
Gebäude 25.42.O1.22
Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf
Universitätsstr. 1
40225 Düsseldorf
Germany