Sir

Since the overthrow of Slobodan Milosevic's regime, many efforts have been made to revitalize Serbia's ruined society. Milosevic's rule was particularly detrimental to science, which was devastated both in manpower and in financial resources. Most top scientists have left the country, and investment in basic research has been reduced to the most dangerous level yet (for example, see Nature 394, 715; 199810.1038/29382 and Europhys. News 30, 4; 1999). What is the the standing of fundamental research in Serbia now?

The new Ministry for Science, Technology and Development has been trying to remedy the misdeeds of the previous regime, but the resistance of the 'old guard' is still very powerful. Conflict between the ministry and scientific institutions has resulted in disagreement about the percentage of the gross national product to be allocated to the sciences. One of the latest proposals is 0.21%, a decrease of 37% for fundamental science research. The dilemma is whether a poor country like Serbia should try to reach the developed countries' goal of 1%, which, according to our basic-research institutions, is necessary to perform internationally competitive work. Or should it concentrate on applied research, as the new minister of science advocates?

Another important issue for basic science, in the context of very limited resources, is whether to continue doing research at specialized institutes (the practice until now) or move it to universities, as in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.

This question was due to be discussed at the Debate Tribune at the Institute of Physics, Belgrade, on 25 June, but the debate was cancelled by management for fear that the truth about the situation would come out. The truth is that many research institutes are functioning at less than half capacity because employees are running private businesses, or are engaged in other nonscientific activities, while retaining their scientific posts even though they do not turn up for work regularly. Nobody has been removed from projects or fired for this corrupt practice, which is becoming widespread. This is why some people advocate placing fundamental research, which is hard to control administratively, in universities, where staff earn their pay by teaching even if they neglect their research activities.

But the principal problem is psychological. After 15 years of despair and demoralization, it is not easy to persuade people to return to their professional duties. In particular, many institutes are run by people who came to power during the Milosevic era, and it will probably be another generation before Serbia is decontaminated in this respect.