Head of Slovak Academy of Sciences says excellence is the best way to help widening countries

The head of the Slovak Academy of Sciences has said that EU research policy should be guided by the principle of excellence as the best means to help countries with a lower research performance.

Speaking at an event in Brussels on 29/06/2026, Martin Venhart, president of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, said: “The best thing Europe can do to support widening countries is to continue to insist on scientific excellence.”

Venhart argued against any dilution of this principle. “Any kind of changes, and attempts to change something, like creating any kind of positive discrimination would be the worst thing that could happen to us,” he said. He joked that his comments “may cost me the chair” of the Slovak academy.

He was speaking at an event “Towards the European Fifth Freedom and Global Competition: Voices from Science”, organised by the European Research Council, and Leopoldina, the German National Academy of Science.

The president said it appeared that political representatives in the EU Council, who recently agreed their position on support for widening countries, had not discussed…