In terms of GDP per capita (in purchasing power parity, - ed.), Ukraine ranks 61st in the world. At the same time, in 2016, Ukraine ranked 40th in terms of scientific potential, 41st in terms of the potential of the higher education system, and 56th in terms of the level of innovation, according to the ratings of specialized UN structures. This was announced by the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine, Liliya Hrynevych, during her speech at the Final Meeting of the Council of Vice-Chancellors on Scientific Work on December 22, 2017.
"There is a common cliché that we have an incredibly decayed science, which, I am sure, you have heard from many Ukrainian politicians. At the same time, if you look globally at the given data, you will see that despite the widespread opinion about the decline of Ukrainian science and higher education, they are in a better position than our economy. That is, with all this poor financing, we show the result. But this does not mean that we will not lose this potential if we do not increase financial support for scientists in the near future," said Liliya Hrynevych.
She also said that in the world it is university science that is the most dynamic segment of scientific research, because graduate students and students are naturally involved in research here. At the same time, there is a significant inequality in Ukraine between the funding of science in universities, for which the Ministry of Education and Science is responsible, and the funding of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
Thus, in 2017, the main managers of budgetary funds for science under the general fund were: NAS of Ukraine - UAH 2 billion 719 million, which go exclusively to the needs of the NAS, and the Ministry of Education and Culture of Ukraine - UAH 621.5 million.
At the same time, from the funds allocated to science, for which the Ministry of Education and Culture is responsible, in addition to supporting fundamental and applied research in universities, about 60 million hryvnias have also been invested. for the State Fund for Fundamental Research, which is also used to support scientists of the NAS and branch academies. In addition, the MES supports scientists of the NAS and branch academies under the program of international scientific and technical cooperation.
"As a result, the share of purely university science support in the general scientific budget of Ukraine is only about 10%. However, even with this, we were able to continue working to support science. A competition for works of young scientists was organized - more than 200 supported projects selected by young scientists themselves, access to more than 100 universities and scientific institutions of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Ministry of Education and Culture was provided to the databases "Scopus", "Web of Science, more than 1,300 fundamental and applied researches and scientific and technical (experimental) ) developments, a significant part of which is aimed at strengthening the country's defense capability and security," the minister noted.
She noted that the best 240 of these innovative developments of 40 universities are collected in a separate catalog.
"The very existence of such a significant development shows that university science is not a consumer of money, but a producer of results and technologies that make Ukraine richer and more powerful," Liliya Hrynevych added.
