400 research projects carried out in seven years

Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences trade union representatives picketed Verkhovna Rada on October 23, accusing those in power of inadequately financing Ukrainian learning, and of recently passing what they claim are discriminatory bills. The union demands that the 2004 appropriations for the academy be raised by UAH 167 million. Also, the Ukrainian savants cannot understand why their wages and salaries have been increased by 6%, compared to 35% at other spending units this year.

Ukrainian-US scientific cooperation continues to expand and the prospects look great, said Gerson Sher, President of the US Civil Study and Development Foundation (it ranking with the principal finance sources providing grants to sustain Ukrainian research these days), during an international symposium commemorating the US CSDF’s seventh anniversary in Ukraine. Among those present were US Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst, Ukrainian National Academy President Borys Paton, Education and Science Minister Vasyl Kremen, and a number of noted Ukrainian scientists and politicians. Mr. Sher noted that the fund’s programs in Ukraine were meant to preserve this country’s outstanding scientific and technological potential, advance Ukrainian-US research contacts, support conversion programs, and facilitate the commercialization of research findings. In his opening speech at the symposium, Mr. Sher admitted that US-Ukrainian cooperation prospects had looked entirely different seven years ago, and that CSDF people had expected it to last only a couple of years. Now, however, the foundation’s successful performance in Ukraine was self-evident: 400 research projects performed, worth a total of some $15 million. Among the recent project was one dealing with a new generation automobile radar system developed by a team of Ukrainian scientists. Several US companies had shown an interest in serial output. Academy President Borys Paton declared that about twenty projects had started being implemented this year, and that 69 Ukrainian research applications had been submitted for US grants in 2004, with the American side to contribute $1.4 million and the Ukrainian counterpart $200,000.

Thus there is every indication that Ukrainian scientists are becoming increasingly actively involved in international cooperation programs. Few if any among the analysts would venture to describe this trend as negative. The situation, however, raises a number of questions, specifically whether this kind of progress is a solution for Ukrainian science; whether such foreign grants and various other finance programs will save them, with the Ukrainian state failing to supply them with all the required facilities. Also, how long can Ukrainian science to rely on foreign aid. The Day posed these and other questions to the Ukrainian and US representatives. Education and Science Minister Vasyl Kremen believes that using domestic and foreign grants for our research projects is by no means evidence of backwardness; on the contrary, foreign aid proves a standing international practice, considering that domestic researcher tend to set objectives reaching far above the national boundaries. “We do have a problem in being unable to enlist sufficient funds,” Minister Kremen said and added that there were ample reasons for the Ukrainian state to pay closer attention to the needs of domestic science. Steps are being made in that direction, including slow but sure pay rises in the educational domain, with more budget appropriations to purchase the required experimenting equipment.

Kostiantyn Sytnyk, a people’s deputy and full member of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences, believes that the share of such foreign grants in the Ukrainian sciences is considerably larger now than habitually practiced elsewhere in the world. CSDF President Gerson Sher agrees with his Ukrainian counterparts, saying that no such grants would be enough to replace central budget financing. He notes, however, that his foundation has sustained a number of Ukrainian researchers, particularly in the younger age division. He is also convinced that the world is interested in Ukrainian research endeavors.