{"id":6312,"date":"2020-10-22T10:11:23","date_gmt":"2020-10-22T10:11:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/polsca.pan.pl\/en\/?p=6312"},"modified":"2020-10-22T10:58:46","modified_gmt":"2020-10-22T10:58:46","slug":"pakt-a-new-bonus-linked-with-horizon-europe-participation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/polsca.pan.pl\/en\/pakt-a-new-bonus-linked-with-horizon-europe-participation\/","title":{"rendered":"PAKT \u2013 a new bonus linked with Horizon Europe participation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p style=\"background-color:#eed695\" class=\"has-background has-drop-cap\">At the end of September this year, The Ministry of Science and Higher Education has published on its websites the very first drafts of the so-called PAKT project, i.e. <strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (otwiera si\u0119 na nowej zak\u0142adce)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.pl\/web\/nauka\/pakt-czyli-premia-dla-aktywych\" target=\"_blank\">\u201ePremia dla AKTywnych\u201d<\/a><\/strong>(en. Bonus for active participants). Objective of the proposed model is to create an effective \u2013 as well as simple and transparent &#8211; bonus system recognizing the best scientists. This shall be achieved by adjusting the remuneration regulations implemented in research units. In the context of the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/info\/horizon-europe-next-research-and-innovation-framework-programme_en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (otwiera si\u0119 na nowej zak\u0142adce)\">Horizon Europe<\/a><\/strong>, the PAKT is to encourage national units and scientists to increase their activity in the upcoming framework program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background has-luminous-vivid-amber-background-color\"><strong>Poland&#8217;s participation in the EU framework program\nfor research and innovation<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ongoing Horizon 2020 research and innovation\nframework program will soon be replaced with Horizon Europe, with a proposed\nbudget of around EUR 85 billion (current figure), which aims to further strengthen\nresearch and innovation in Europe. The national goal at the end of the\nimplementation period of the Horizon Europe programme, is to increase the\nfinancial share of Polish entities to the level of at least 3% of the total\nbudget of the program. This will allow for achieving a balance between the national\ncontribution to the program budget and its use by Polish researchers and\ninnovators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Poland&#8217;s participation in the Horizon 2020 program is growing steadily, yet it is still too low in relation to country&#8217;s potential. As a matter of fact, Poland is the net payer, recovering only 1.21% of the Horizon 2020 budget allocated to EU countries, while our contribution to the programme is at the level of approx. 3%. An overview of the current participation of Polish entities in the H2020 can be found on a dedicated website of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kpk.gov.pl\/analizy-i-statystyki\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (otwiera si\u0119 na nowej zak\u0142adce)\">Polish NCP<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In order to achieve the set goal, the Ministry has diagnosed\na number of reasons for the low participation of Polish public entities in the framework\nprogram and recommended actions to be implemented before the launch of HE. One\nof these concerns the availability of competitive salaries in research\nprojects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background has-luminous-vivid-amber-background-color\"><strong>Proposed changes\nto the system of remunerations in R&amp;D projects<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the main obstacles hindering increased participation\nof Polish scientists, was the lack of sufficiently high financial gratification\nfor work performed under the framework programs. Note that in projects financed\nunder H2020 there are two methods of settling remuneration:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>reimbursement of costs incurred, based on the\nemployment \/ appointment contract \u2013 settled at the base rate,<\/li><li>the so-called project-based remuneration,\nwhere remuneration differs depending on whether the employee works for the\nproject or not &#8211; the base rate and additional remuneration are settled.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Due to the objective fact of lower level of\nremuneration of scientists working in Poland as compared to those in Western\nEuropean countries, the first scenario does not contribute to increasing the\ncompetitiveness of wages in the R&amp;D sector. On the other hand, the second\nmodel requires that scientific units adopt well-defined, transparent and stable\nrules for remuneration in projects, funded with both domestic and foreign\nprogrammes. The PAKT therefore, is a set of guidelines and references prepared\nat the level of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, which is to\nfacilitate the adoption of appropriate regulations at universities and research\nunits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the Ministry, the implementation of new\nregulations concerning project remuneration &#8211; in line with the provisions of\nthe PACT system &#8211; will benefit not only individual scientists, but shall bring\neven greater profits to universities and research &nbsp;institutes. The regulations proposed under the\nPAKT provide a legal framework for an agreement between a university or an\ninstitute and the most active and successful scientists, thus facilitating the\never more efficient implementation of projects, including those funded under Horizon\nEurope. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The solutions developed within the PAKT system will be\nused for designing of the NCBR and NCN regulations, The Ministry of Science and\nHigher Education is currently awaiting for the approval of the proposed\nprovisions by the European Commission, which is believed to take place only after\nthe formal adoption of the HE legislative package. We hope the latter one\nmaterializes before the end of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-file\"><a href=\"http:\/\/polsca.pan.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/Ramy_Systemu_Wynagrodze\u0144.pdf\">Proposed regulation regarding additional project-based remuneration<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/polsca.pan.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/Ramy_Systemu_Wynagrodze\u0144.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button\" download>Pobierz<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background has-luminous-vivid-amber-background-color\"><strong>Proposed\nregulation regarding additional project-based remuneration<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The provisions proposed by the Ministry of Science and\nHigher Education constitute a regulation that meets the guidelines of the\nEuropean Commission. It was developed as an exemplary regulation, while its\nmodifications are allowed in accordance with the specificity and needs of a\ngiven unit. However, below are the basic principles that must be maintained:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>the additional\nallowance may not be discretionary and its amount must be clearly defined in\nthe regulations at a specific level (restrictions in the form of the salary\nrange are not sufficient)<\/li><li>the regulations must apply to a group of projects\nfinanced both from domestic and foreign sources.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The proposed example \u2013 provided by the Ministry of Science\nand Higher Education &#8211; contains the basic regulations that should be utilized\nby institutions with appropriate implementing provisions enabling their deployment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Bear in mind,\nthat the text below is the English translation of the original proposal\npublished by the Ministry only in the Polish language version. The following\ntext cannot be regarded as legally binding, nor should it constitute the basis\nfor activities aimed at preparing the stipulated regulations. PolSCA is not\nresponsible for the use of the following material.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The proposed provision of the &#8220;Regulations&#8221; \u2013 project-based remuneration<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol><li>The employee will be paid additional remuneration for the time worked in projects financed from external sources (domestic and foreign), in the amount of X% of the basic salary (or in the amount specified in Annex x), according to the proportion of time worked in the project.<\/li><li>An employee acting as a project manager will be paid, above the additional remuneration specified in point 1, the bonus remuneration in the amount specified in Annex x (or in the amount of Y% of the basic remuneration), according to the proportion of time worked in the project.<\/li><li>An employee acting as a work package manager will be paid, above the additional remuneration specified in point 1, the bonus remuneration in the amount specified in Annex x (or in the amount of Z% of the basic remuneration), according to the proportion of time worked in the project.<\/li><li>The basic remuneration includes the following components: the basic salary specified in the employment contract or the deed of appointment, the seniority allowance, the functional allowance and the allowance for work in harmful or strenuous conditions.<\/li><li>The rules specified under sections 1-4 do not apply where the level of additional remuneration related to the implementation of the project is determined by the funding institution. In this case, the terms and conditions set by the funding institution apply.<\/li><li>The basic remuneration and additional remuneration may not exceed the amount of XYZ (or, alternatively, may not exceed the amount resulting from the recommendation of the Minister responsible for science). In the event that the basic and additional remuneration, calculated according to the principles set out in sections 1-3 exceeded this amount, the employee is entitled to the XYZ amount (or, alternatively, the amount resulting from the recommendation of the Minister responsible for science).<\/li><li>The regulations apply to all projects that were awarded to a given unit after January 1, 2021.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Explanation to the \u201eRegulations\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ad 1 <\/strong>&#8211; It is not specified whether the allowance is to be in\nthe form of % of the basic remuneration or whether it should be expressed in a\nspecific amount. It depends on the decision of a given institution, however the\nMinistry of Science and Higher Education recommends setting the % level. The\namount of the allowance may depend on the position of the employee, role in the\nproject, the size of the project or other objective criteria specified in the\nregulations, as decided by the institution. Each institution will define under\nits own remuneration regulations specific amounts of bonuses under section 1\nwithin the percentage limit announced by the Ministry of Science and Higher\nEducation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ad 2,3<\/strong> \u2013 It is optional whether the entity decides to\nadditionally reward persons performing specific roles in the project. The\namount of such bonus remuneration can be selected in amount or percentage\n(Ministry of Science and Higher Education recommends setting the amount).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ad 1,2,3<\/strong> &#8211; If an institution uses more complex systems that\ndifferentiate the level of allowances according to more criteria, then these shall\nbe specified in the annexes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ad 5<\/strong> &#8211; It also includes a situation when the funding\ninstitution does not allow additional allowances to be paid to employees in\nconnection with the implementation of the project. The funding institution may,\nin particular:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>specify\nmaximum X, Y, Z levels as amounts or percentages. The amount levels may refer\nto both the monthly remuneration (100% of working time) and the actual\nremuneration (proportional to the % of the time involved in the project);<\/li><li>specify that\nthe granted funds can be paid to cover full employment cost or the project\nbonus only;<\/li><li>define its own\nremuneration rules. Pursuant to this point, specific types of projects are\nexcluded, e.g. MSCA fellowships under HE, which apply lump sums specified by\nthe European Commission as well as projects financed by Polish Financing\nAgencies, in which the level of additional remuneration is specified.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ad 6<\/strong> &#8211; Additionally, in order to prevent situations where\nthe remuneration paid in accordance with the applicable regulations exceeds the\nmarket values, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education shall set the value\nof the maximum monthly remuneration that may be used in projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>NOTE: The current proposal of the Ministry of\nScience and Higher Education says that the XYZ amount should be the equivalent\nof approx. <\/strong><strong>7000 Euro<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ad 7<\/strong> &#8211; It is important to determine in the content of the\nregulations to which projects its provisions apply. The entity has to decide\nwhether rules will be applied to ongoing projects or only to newly acquired\nprojects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Additional remarks<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol><li>The following steps are necessary for the system to be deployable:<ul><li>The Ministry of Science and Higher Education &#8211; in consultation with the Financing Agencies &#8211; defines and announces the limit within which institutions may apply the percentage increase in remuneration (point 1 of the proposed regulations) and the value of the maximum monthly remuneration (point 6 of the proposed regulations)<\/li><\/ul><ul><li>As a rule of thumb, Polish Financing Agencies do not define in their respective competition rules the amount of project remuneration, which shall be regulated pursuant to project remuneration regulations specified by institutions (except for specific programme calls, where the amount of remuneration\/bonuses will be determined by funding institutions and will be excluded in accordance with point 5 of the institution&#8217;s regulations).<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>The exclusions set out in clause 5 of the Regulations are objective and thus the European Commission should have no objections in this regards. Unfortunately, if exceptions are to be utilized too widely, this may lead to a situation that the said regulations will only apply to project allowance paid in projects funded under of the Horizon Europe only. This is in contradictory to the basic assumption that the project allowance should be paid both in European and national programs. . The EC has announced that it will audit not only the regulations, but also the practice, i.e. whether the provisions are also applied in national projects. From this follows the pursuit for Polish Funding Agencies to adjust their rules in such a way that the payment of the project allowance on the basis of the regulations of the institution is also possible in programs financed from national funds. If it is not possible to adjust the rules of all types of projects to the EC guidelines, then at least some of them shall be harmonized according to later guidelines.<\/li><li>Each research unit participating in the Horizon Europe program should implement at least one project (the more the better) in which remuneration is paid based on the same rules as in the Horizon Europe program.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background has-very-light-gray-background-color\">We encourage you to follow the activity of the PolSCA Office on our website, as well as on the&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PolSCA\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (otwiera si\u0119 na nowej zak\u0142adce)\">Facebook profile<\/a><\/strong>.&nbsp;<strong>If you want to receive similar information and to be regularly updated via PolSCA Office, subscribe to our&nbsp;<\/strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/forms\/d\/e\/1FAIpQLSeT1Et3JMwcXTMgMH-cl99idTjTj0XAASH-9Ea8Aizs4FiwHw\/viewform?fbclid=IwAR3-eO4WTIJ_PSIhgenBygIOcKCsTkaVS6Y9B2q\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>newsletter!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><em>Published: 2020-10-13, T. Poprawka<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><em>Translated: 2020-10-22, T. Poprawka<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><em>Visuals: @Freepik.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At the end of September this year, The Ministry of Science and Higher Education has published on its websites the very first drafts of the so-called PAKT project, i.e. \u201ePremia [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6307,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":0,"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_ecp_custom_2":"","_ecp_custom_3":"","_ecp_custom_4":"","_ecp_custom_5":"","_ecp_custom_6":"","_ecp_custom_7":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/polsca.pan.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6312"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/polsca.pan.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/polsca.pan.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/polsca.pan.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/polsca.pan.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6312"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/polsca.pan.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6493,"href":"https:\/\/polsca.pan.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6312\/revisions\/6493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/polsca.pan.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/polsca.pan.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/polsca.pan.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/polsca.pan.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}