This year, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports is conducting a competition for scientific projects for universities and scientific institutions of the Ministry in a new direction - marine research. The winners will receive budgetary funding for their scientific developments for 2 or 3 years, starting in 2019.

"Every year, when announcing the competition, we approve the priority areas in which participants can submit their projects. This time there are 5 such areas: literary studies, linguistics and art studies; socio-historical sciences; right; infrastructure studies; as well as marine research for the first time," said Dmytro Cheberkus, Director General of the Science Directorate of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports.

He emphasized that such an innovation is very important, because the illegal annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation caused critical losses to the Ukrainian research potential in this field.

"After the annexation, we lost most of the key scientific institutions and universities that researched the seas, along with their infrastructure - laboratories, stations, research vessels, etc. In particular, control over unique databases of long-term studies of the World Ocean, the Black and Azov Seas was taken away from us. Unfortunately, the scientific potential of Ukraine in this field has decreased to a minimum during all the years of Independence. However, now we are starting systematic work on the restoration of our marine science," said the head of the directorate.

According to him, the main strategic step is the development of the relevant Concept. It will reflect the state's policy on the restoration of marine research and research infrastructure until 2023. The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine has already begun to prepare the document together with the National Academy of Sciences and other stakeholders.

"At the same time, as we prepare the program, we must now do real things to support marine research. Including this topic in the competition is a good tool. Higher and scientific institutions of the MES can receive from 600 to 3 million hryvnias or even more for a 2- or 3-year scientific project. Within such projects, we want to gather our leading scientists, as well as give a signal to scientific youth that this direction will continue to be a priority," Dmytro Cheberkus emphasized.

The competition will be held in several stages. The first one, which is held by universities and institutions in the single electronic system "Science in universities", will last until July 1. The selected works will be submitted for examination to the relevant sections. This is the second stage. Based on the examination, the Scientific Council of the MES approves the list of competition winners. They will be elected by September 20.