LACK OF SCIENCE FUNDING, SAYS ARMENIAN NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES PRESIDENT

Tert
Nov 4 2009
Armenia

In Armenia, funding for the sciences reaches 8 billion AMD, which is
less than 1% of the state budget expenditures, National Academy of
Sciences (NAS) President Radik Martirosyan told journalists today.

According to Martirosyan, all over the world, the amount of science
funding is calculated not by the state budget’s expenses, but by its
percentage in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Martirosyan presented
some data to compare science funding in Armenia to that in the rest
of the world.

Thus, science funding comprises 4% of the GDP in "developed" (editor’s
use of quotes here) countries and only 0.2% in Armenia. Among Armenia’s
neighbouring countries, in Georgia and Azerbaijan namely, the figure
is higher: 0.5% of GDP.

Martirosyan also added that according to international criteria,
annual expenses spent for a single scientist (including his or her
salary) amount to 120-130 thousand EUR, as compared to only 3, 000
EUR in Armenia.

Martirosyan added that the issue is also included in the 2020
Science Development Strategy. In this document, which, according to
Martirosyan, is rather declarative, gives preliminary estimates of
the desired financing.

According to president of the National Academy of Sciences, in 2020,
science funding will increase up to 2% of the GDP, which means that
the present funding amount will increase ten-fold.

Martirosyan also stated the general discussion on Science Development
Strategy will be held in December.