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On Monday, October 9, 2023, the first meeting of the representatives of the Slovak Academy of Sciences with the new representatives of the International Advisory Committee (IAB) took place on the grounds of the Presidium of SAS. Professor Marja Makarow was replaced as the President of the Advisory Board by Prof. Wim van den Doel from Leiden University. Prof. Zdeňek Havlas from the Czech Academy of Sciences, prof.  Valeria Nicolos from Trinity College, Dublin and prof. Özen Nergis Dolcerocca from the University of Bologna who specifically addresses the topic of young scientists and PhD. students, joined the Board as its new members.

At the beginning of the meeting, the President of the SAS, Prof. Pavol Šajgalík evaluated the contribution of the International Evaluation Panel and its recommendations not only for the development of the Academy itself, but also in relation to the decision-making sphere and political representatives. As he stated, a positive sign of the regular evaluation of SAS and its improvement is the stable credibility of the Academy in the eyes of society. He is proud that it was possible to assemble a panel of such high-quality experts. Subsequently, he handed over the appointment decrees to the present members of the Advisory Committee.

Prof.  Peter Samuely briefly presented the results of the evaluation of SAS institutes and compared them with the VER 2022 evaluation. He reminded that the SAS is currently implementing the recommendations of the metapanel, which resulted from the last International Evaluation of Institutes and Centres of the Academy.

The Vice-Presidents of the individual scientific sections, Dr. Martin Venhart, Dr. Tomáš Hromádka and Dr. Marek Radvanský, continued with the evaluation of the work of institutes of the individual SAS departments. They reported on the extent to which the recommendations of the Advisory Board are being implemented in scientific sections.

Dr. František Simančík spoke on the topic of technology transfer, and Prof. Ľubica Lacinová presented current activities for PhD. students. As she stated, the number of foreign PhD. students at SAS is slowly increasing, including in scientific section 3. The topics of the discussion were also the IMPULZ and SASPRO 2 programs, grants and competitions for PhD. students, as well as the activities of the Gender Equality Plan of the SAS.

The newly elected President of the IAB expressed his overall satisfaction with the way the SAS has managed to fulfil the recommendations from the last evaluation so far.

The next meeting of the International Advisory Board will take place in 2024.

Members of the International Advisory Board (IAB):

Prof. Marja Makarow, University of Helsinki

Prof. Valeria Nicolosi, Trinity College, Dublin

Prof. Wim van den Doel, Leiden University

Prof. Özen Nergis Dolcerocca, University of Bologna

Prof. Zdeňek Havlas, Czech Academy of Sciences

Editedy by Katarína Gáliková

Foto: Martin Bystriansky