U.S., Poland Sign New Science Cooperation Agreement

U.S., Poland Sign New Science Cooperation Agreement

Representatives of the United States and Poland signed a new 10-year Science and Technology (S&T) Cooperation Agreement in Washington February 10 to facilitate broad bilateral scientific cooperation between the two nations.

Poland Minister of Foreign Affairs Stefan Meller and State Department Under Secretary for Democracy and Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky signed the agreement. Polish Ambassador to the United States Janusz Reiter also attended the signing.

“It is my honor to join you today to sign this science and technology agreement between the United States and Poland,” Dobriansky said, citing Poland as a country that has produced 11 Nobel laureates in physics, chemistry and physiology or medicine.

The new agreement follows a 1992-2002 S&T agreement that prompted a range of joint scientific and technological efforts, including:

• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has shared alternative energy resources with Poland through the Methane to Markets Partnership, a 17-nation initiative that seeks to reduce global methane emissions, promote energy security, improve the environment and reduce greenhouse gases. (See related article.)

• Long-term technical cooperation between experts in the United States and Poland significantly have improved the air and water quality in the ancient Polish capital, Krakow.

• The United States helped preserve the Wieliczka Salt Mine, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Poland that has been mined since the 13th century. Its nine levels contain 300 kilometers of galleries where works of art, altars and statues are sculpted in the salt.

• Joint projects between scientists in the United States and Poland have yielded important medical research publications in many areas, including molecular oncology and fetal cardiology.

The new agreement will allow scientists and engineers from both nations to continue promoting scientific and technical knowledge, implementing advanced and applied scientific and technical projects and expanding scientific and technical capabilities.

Dobriansky said experts in the two nations already are planning joint cancer research and infectious disease projects, and hope to plan projects in the environmental sciences.

“These projects,” she added, “are just a small indication of what types of cooperation and … discoveries are possible when we work together to solve common problems through science, engineering and technology.”