ARKA News Agency, Armenia
April 6 2007

FAVORABLE CONDITIONS FOR YOUNG SCIENTISTS NEEDED IN ARMENIA

YEREVAN, April 6. /ARKA/. Favorable conditions for involving young
people in science should be created in Armenia, President of the
Armenian National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) Radik Martirosyan stated
at the ANAS annual meeting.
"Also, the Government must elaborate a comprehensive program to
ensure change of generations," he said.
According to Martirosyan, the number of ANAS staff members has
recently considerably decreased, and one of the reasons is a rather
slow process of staffing. "Young people do not want to go to
science," he said.
The ANAS President believes that the managers of scientific
institutions are to a great extent guilty of this as well. They do
not want to take on young specialists.
"On the other hand, a more negative phenomenon is taking place as
well – poor interest in scientific work and a poor reputation of
research workers," he said.
In this context, Martirosyan pointed out that the decrease in the
number of workers of science and in the volume of scientific research
has decreased. As a result, various scientific institutions have free
premises.
"The Government could allow the sale of premises and forma Fund of
Science, which would direct funds to the creation of necessary
conditions for scientific structures," Martirosyan said. This can be
observed in research institutes of Yerevan, Abovyan and Ashtarak.
By January 1, 2007, a total of 3,731 staff members had been
registered at ANAS, with 2,171 of them being research workers against
8,633 and 3,040 respectively in 1991. This testifies that the number
of people involved in Armenia’s scientific sector has decrease over
two times since 1991. P.T. -0–