Members of Romanian National Research Council resign en masse

Science : All 19 members of Romania’s National Research Council (CNCS) resigned after the Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sport announced cuts to multiyear research grants that had been issued in 2011. Some grants will be cut by as much as 55% this year. The CNCS members said they resigned in protest of those cuts as well as previous actions by the ministry. The government had recently imposed requirements that grant applications be reviewed by international panels and that applicants for the grants have international peer-reviewed publications. The council members were upset because they believe those policies limit the availability of grant money to many Romanian researchers. The government said the funding cut was necessary because CNCS had approved too many grants, but that the lost funding would be made up for in 2014. However, when a similar cut occurred in 2010, the government did not follow through with its promise that the funding would be restored.