Slovenia seeking to become a strong innovator again

Papič said the ongoing transformation of the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS) into the Agency for Research and Innovation in Science (ARIS) will make implementation of science and research, and innovation policies allow more efficient and consistent.

"Our short-term goal is return to the group of strong innovators as soon as possible," the minister said in an interview with the STA.

"I often say the only natural asset our country has, apart from its beautiful nature, is knowledge, and we can make much more use of this, not only for writing papers and collecting citations, but also for use in our daily lives."

Papič explained that a new Innovation Council will be in charge of disbursing investment funds in line with how "mature" for use in practice individual project are. The first calls funded by the council will probably be in the field of AI, followed by semiconductors and quantum technologies, he announced.

Papič said that in order to strengthen the innovation ecosystem, intensive investment will be needed in projects ranked 3 to 6 in terms of the technology readiness levels (TRL), which range from 1 to 9.

"This is where the industry is not yet sure whether a technology will mature, where the risk is greatest. Misija Gremo (Let's Go), [a project of the Slovenian automotive cluster], is for instance a great project. Anywhere that business shows a very clear interest, we want to help, together with research institutions."

The minister also pointed to pending legislative changes to raise funding for science to 1.25% of GDP and to 1.5% of GDP for higher education in the coming years.

All institutes and universities were asked to communicate their investment needs for the next few years, and the figure that emerged is nearly EUR 2 billion.

Papič is confident that, with the planned increase in funding and with the help of the Cohesion Fund, the Recovery and Resilience Plan and the special law for health investments, 40% of this can be reached by 2030 and the full amount by 2035.

"By increasing funding for both science and higher education, we will provide more additional resources to the institutions themselves, so that they can start drawing up their own ten-year development plans and investing in their infrastructure in the way that is best for them, including through credit - this is very important. They will all have their turn to invest, because they will be the ones to decide their own destiny. In this way, we are drastically increasing their real autonomy."

Looking at investment at two of Slovenia's three public universities, he highlighted plans in Ljubljana for a new Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, and for a new Faculty of Pharmacy, while foundation stones have been laid for a new campus for the Medical Faculty and for the Veterinary Faculty.

Funding plans in Maribor involve the Innovum Technology Innovation Centre, the extension of the Medical Faculty, and the renovation and extension of the Faculty of Health.

Construction work for the long-delayed new National and University Library in the capital, NUK II, is meant to start this year, with Papič saying that NUK II would temporarily take over the tasks of the currently shelved Science Centre.

Meanwhile, the ministry's first year has also been marked by pay talks with the higher education trade union. The minister assessed that talks have been constructive, but stressed the need to reform the public sector pay system as a whole.

The ministry moreover upset universities with guidelines requiring increased enrolment slots for specific programmes, including for teaching professions, law, social work, pharmacy, IT professions, mathematics, electrical engineering, multimedia and media communications, mechanical engineering, tech security, forestry, forest ecosystem management, and food professions.

Papič, who said that a systemic solution for this would kick in only in January 2025 with a new financing agreement, feels that the main problem is not about which fields to shift to, but about there being too few students to meet all the needs of society.

He spoke of the need to attract students from other, non-European countries, such as India. "Slovenian universities should organise specific entrance exams, with those who pass automatically getting a Schengen visa and arriving to study in Slovenia. I'm convinced this way they will also have an easier time integrating, having already lived here for at least five years during their studies," he said.

Meanwhile, the minister does not consider the use of tools like ChatGPT among young people as a problem if they use them for easier and faster access to information and as long they have a grasp of the information obtained. He argued it is the responsibility of teachers to determine how these technologies should be used.

On the other hand, he has been noticing increasing issues with soft skills, especially among science and technology students. Thus, much more attention should be paid to interdisciplinarity, "so that we can work together and also take into account the sociological, humanistic aspects in the development of new technology".

"Everything is moving in this direction, towards Society 5.0," Papič believes, arguing this is also where the micro-credentials trends are heading. He rejects the criticism that micro-credentials are becoming a substitute for basic education, arguing that the trend is primary about lifelong education.