Lost In Translation: The Serbian Government Isn’t Reducing Government Spending On Science

A whole bunch of folks are sending this one in, so let’s get it covered. B92 is running an article entitled “Djelic: More funds for science: Science Minister Bozidar Djelic says that no less than Eur 44,000 will be set aside for scientific research this year.” It’s pretty obvious that Eur 44.000 is almost a laughable amount. As a commenter on the B92 article pointed out, Eur 44.000 probably won’t even cover the cost of one researcher, and nothing left for equipment or assistants. Could it be that this is just another case of bad translation? Yes. In fact, Bozidar Djelic, Deputy Prime Minister for EU Integration, who is also the Minister for Science and Technological Development announced that this year for the promotion of astronomy not be less than Eur 44.000 will be provided. These funds apply only to the promotion of astronomy in Serbia, on the occasion of the activities related to the international year of astronomy. Serbia’s budget for science is nearly Euro 105 million in 2009. You can download the full report (Science and Technology: Priorities, plans and possibilities for 2009) as a PDF.