Paris―when Helena Illnerova talks about the future of science in her country, she sounds just like a science manager in London, Paris, or Berlin. The mantras are the same. Participation in Europe-wide funding schemes needs to increase, says the president of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. Let's make science more competitive. Ramp up international collaboration and stimulate mobility. It's easy to forget that only 15 years ago, Illnerova, an internationally known chronobiologist, had great trouble collaborating with anybody outside the East Bloc, and her mobility was, well, almost zero. On 1 May the Czech Republic and seven other former communist nations, along with Malta and Cyprus, will join the European Union (E.U.), marking a stunning historic transition that began with the rise of Poland's Solidarity movement in the mid-1980s. Scientists across Europe are hailing this year's May Day as a milestone for science―if only because, like Illnerova, tens of thousands of scientists now have the freedom that is priceless to their work.
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