Tuesday, March 21 2023 16:48

ArmInfo. RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was presented today with the performance reports of the Science Committee and the Supreme Certifying Committee of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport for the year 2022.

As the RA PM press service reports, the meeting was attended by  Deputy Prime Ministers Mher Grigoryan and Tigran Khachatryan,  Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Zhanna Andreasyan,  Head of the State Supervision Service Romanos Petrosyan, Chairman of  the Science Committee Sargis Armenian, Deputy Chairman of the Supreme  Certifying Committee Gagik Ktryan, and other officials.

The Prime Minister was reported on the implementation of programs and  measures in the field of scientific and scientific-technical  activities.

It was noted that the Science Committee carried out works in 4  directions: improvement of infrastructure, development of human  resources, efficiency of state funding and regulation of the legal  framework.  Since January 1, 2022, the salary of researchers has  significantly increased based on the results of certefication of  scientific personnel included in the basic funding programs 2022-2025  approved by the Government of the Republic of Armenia on May 13,  2021.

4 competitions aimed at raising the qualification of researchers and  attracting young personnel have been announced. In particular, for  the first time, an international competition "Program to support the  integration of foreign scientists into the Armenian scientific  community" was organized, as a result of which since October 2022, 5  scientists who relocated to Armenia from abroad have been financed  for a period of 60 months, 175 million AMD each. For the first time,  the competition "Program for establishing remote laboratories" was  held, topics presented by 18 scientists from 11 countries were  funded. Up to 152.5 million AMD is allocated to each program for 5  years, a certain part of which is directed to the improvement of the  laboratory environment. The "PhD Students and Young Applicants  Research Support Program-2022" competition was organized, research  projects of 26 PhD students and applicants were funded. 35  applications were funded by the research support program for young  researchers. 69 of the 86 programs selected by the mentioned 4  competitions are headed by scientists under the age of 35, 211 of the  286 people involved in the programs are young people.

Based on the results of the competition to provide financial support  for the modernization of the infrastructure, material and technical  base in the field of science, 2 billion 933 million AMD were provided  to 15 scientific organizations, 28 applications were financed. On  February 11, 2022, the agreement "between the Republic of Armenia and  the EU on the participation of the Republic of Armenia in the  "Horizon Europe" research and innovation framework program" entered  into force. Within the framework of the project in 2021-2022,  Armenian organizations received 2,729,236.25 euros of grant funds. A  memorandum of cooperation was signed with the Shota Rustaveli  National Science Foundation of Georgia.

It was reported that the activities of the Supreme Certifying  Committee in 2022 were aimed at improving the system. A change in the  procedure for awarding academic degrees was initiated, a draft of a  new regulation on awarding academic degrees was developed, steps  aimed at improving the legal framework of postgraduate education and  quality control of scientific periodicals of the Republic of Armenia  were taken.  Introduction of a new anti-plagiarism computer program  is underway. The list of scientific journals accepted by the Supreme  Certifying Committee was revised, 9 periodicals were excluded. 166  certificates of candidate of sciences, 86 diplomas of associate  professor, 10 certificates of doctor of sciences and 18 diplomas of  professorship were awarded.

An exchange of ideas regarding the works done took place. The  development of scientific products and infrastructure created by  state promotion programs, the provision of science-production link,  the implementation of system-building programs, and other issues were  discussed.

The Prime Minister emphasized the launch of the mechanism for the  certification of researchers resulting in the salary increase, which  will promote the development of the sector.

Nikol Pashinyan referred to the programs of raising the qualification  of scientific workers and attracting young personnel and noted that  it is necessary to work towards the development of the conditions for  doing science in Armenia and increasing the attractiveness of the  scientific infrastructure.  The Head of the Government was also  reported on the progress of other reforms implemented in the field of  higher education and science.