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.

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.