01/06/12

Tunisian researchers seek greater support for science

Tunisian scientists are calling for more funding Copyright: Shutterstock

By: Nébil Zaghdoud

We encourage you to republish this article online and in print, it’s free under our creative commons attribution license, but please follow some simple guidelines:

You have to credit our authors.
You have to credit SciDev.Net — where possible include our logo with a link back to the original article.
You can simply run the first few lines of the article and then add: “Read the full article on SciDev.Net” containing a link back to the original article.
If you want to also take images published in this story you will need to confirm with the original source if you're licensed to use them.
The easiest way to get the article on your site is to embed the code below.

For more information view our media page and republishing guidelines.

The full article is available here as HTML.

Press Ctrl-C to copy

<div class="article-wrap">
<div id="article-introduction">
<h1>Tunisian researchers seek greater support for science</h1>
<h4>By: Nébil Zaghdoud</h4>
</div>

<div id="article-body">
[TUNIS] Tunisian scientists are demanding that the country’s post-revolution constitution includes a clause relating to support for <a href="http://www.scidev.net/en/science-and-innovation-policy/r-d/">scientific research</a>, as well as a dedicated science budget. 
These demands follow a significant drop in <a href="http://www.scidev.net/en/science-and-innovation-policy/finance/">science funding</a> since the uprising of 2011 that saw a regime change in the country. 
Last month (11 May) the National Constituent Assembly (NCA) raised the budget for scientific research by ten per cent, to a total of €55 million (US$67.8 million). 
This represents about 0.5 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). But it is less than half of the budget allocated for science prior to the revolution, when science funding represented about 1.25 per cent of GDP. 
Meanwhile, Tunisia’s science community has called for at least two per cent of GDP to be allocated to scientific research. 
Researchers from the Tunisian Association for Research Development and Innovation (TARDI) staged a protest in April in front of the NCA, as part of their initiative to demand a separate constitutional clause to regulate scientific research and guarantee appropriate budget levels. 
"Establishing a concrete and credible scientific research system is necessary to create wealth and job opportunities," Rached Kahlani, secretary-general of TARDI, told SciDev.Net. 
"TARDI asked the NCA to devote a clause in the new constitution to maintaining the importance of scientific research in the country, and to allocate at least two per cent of GDP for science," he added. 
Rapporteur-general of the constitution and NCA member, Habib Khedher, told SciDev.Net: "Scientific research is a priority in the new Tunisia, and we will have a constitutional article to organise it". 
He added that in the coming months, the NCA would hold a general meeting with the minister of scientific research to discuss the status of science and a reference to the needs of researchers and scientists within the constitution.
However, Khedher also added that the constitution could not allocate a precise percentage of the country’s GDP to scientific research, as such a mechanism would require altering the constitution whenever this percentage changed. 
Moncef Ben Salem, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, told SciDev.Net that the reduction in science funding since the revolution had resulted from: "large challenges and complicated issues facing the government after the uprising, including unemployment, local development needs, and other urgent issues." 
Bechir Hamrouni, a researcher at El Khawarizmi Calculus Centre, said that a reduction in the budget "would certainly reduce the number of funded research projects during the year". 
"We still enjoy appropriate research infrastructure, but with time, if the budget doesn’t increase, our capacity for scientific research will decrease dramatically," he said. 
However, Ben Salem also highlighted that his ministry is now working to reform the system of scientific research in the country, in collaboration with Tunisian scientists abroad, and international partners, in particular UNESCO (UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation). 
According to Ben Salem, the recent budgetary increases are an important part of this effort, and will be used specifically to fund scientific research directed to the priorities of development and the transfer of new technologies.

</div>
<div class="quick-links-wrapper">
<h3>You might also like</h3>
[related-articles]
</div>
This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/news/tunisian-researchers-seek-greater-support-for-science/" target="_blank">original article</a>.
<script type="text/javascript">
(function(e,t,n,r,i,s,o){e["GoogleAnalyticsObject"]=i;e[i]=e[i]||function(){(e[i].q=e[i].q||[]).push(arguments)},e[i].l=1*new Date;s=t.createElement(n),o=t.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];s.async=1;s.src=r;o.parentNode.insertBefore(s,o)})(window,document,"script","//www.google-analytics.com/ga.js","ga");var _gaq=_gaq||[];var _gaq=_gaq||[];_gaq.push(["_setAccount","UA-3223906-8"],["_trackEvent","article interaction","republished","https://www.scidev.net/global/news/tunisian-researchers-seek-greater-support-for-science/",null,true])
</script>
</div>

[TUNIS] Tunisian scientists are demanding that the country’s post-revolution constitution includes a clause relating to support for scientific research, as well as a dedicated science budget.

These demands follow a significant drop in science funding since the uprising of 2011 that saw a regime change in the country.

Last month (11 May) the National Constituent Assembly (NCA) raised the budget for scientific research by ten per cent, to a total of €55 million (US$67.8 million).

This represents about 0.5 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). But it is less than half of the budget allocated for science prior to the revolution, when science funding represented about 1.25 per cent of GDP.

Meanwhile, Tunisia’s science community has called for at least two per cent of GDP to be allocated to scientific research.

Researchers from the Tunisian Association for Research Development and Innovation (TARDI) staged a protest in April in front of the NCA, as part of their initiative to demand a separate constitutional clause to regulate scientific research and guarantee appropriate budget levels.

"Establishing a concrete and credible scientific research system is necessary to create wealth and job opportunities," Rached Kahlani, secretary-general of TARDI, told SciDev.Net.

"TARDI asked the NCA to devote a clause in the new constitution to maintaining the importance of scientific research in the country, and to allocate at least two per cent of GDP for science," he added.

Rapporteur-general of the constitution and NCA member, Habib Khedher, told SciDev.Net: "Scientific research is a priority in the new Tunisia, and we will have a constitutional article to organise it".

He added that in the coming months, the NCA would hold a general meeting with the minister of scientific research to discuss the status of science and a reference to the needs of researchers and scientists within the constitution.

However, Khedher also added that the constitution could not allocate a precise percentage of the country’s GDP to scientific research, as such a mechanism would require altering the constitution whenever this percentage changed.

Moncef Ben Salem, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, told SciDev.Net that the reduction in science funding since the revolution had resulted from: "large challenges and complicated issues facing the government after the uprising, including unemployment, local development needs, and other urgent issues."

Bechir Hamrouni, a researcher at El Khawarizmi Calculus Centre, said that a reduction in the budget "would certainly reduce the number of funded research projects during the year".

"We still enjoy appropriate research infrastructure, but with time, if the budget doesn’t increase, our capacity for scientific research will decrease dramatically," he said.

However, Ben Salem also highlighted that his ministry is now working to reform the system of scientific research in the country, in collaboration with Tunisian scientists abroad, and international partners, in particular UNESCO (UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation).

According to Ben Salem, the recent budgetary increases are an important part of this effort, and will be used specifically to fund scientific research directed to the priorities of development and the transfer of new technologies.