08:19, 7 February 2019

Amid protests, Armenian authorities give up the idea to cut science funding

Employees of Yerevan State University have held an action against contests for funding scientific programmes. The authorities did not abandon this idea, but cancelled the decision to drastically cut the financial support for R&D institutes and laboratories in 2019.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on December 29, the Armenian authorities made a decision that R&D centres and laboratories should apply for grants to implement their scientific programmes. Should the funding be revised, since March 31, 2019, 200 researchers of the Yerevan State University lose jobs; other 250 are deprived of a part of their earnings.

The protesters believe that the mechanisms for science financing should be brought up for public discussion, the "Sputnik Armenia" reports.

"However, we stick to our opinion that the science can't be financed from the state budget and yield a zero result. To improve the efficiency, we need a new approach," said Araik Arutyunyan, the Minister of Education and Sciences.

The Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, has confessed that they had to back down under the public pressure, the "News of Armenia" reports. He expressed dissatisfaction with the level of Armenian sciences in and the financing thereof.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on February 6, 2019 at 08:31 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Author: Tigran Petrosyan

Source: CK correspondent