Financial Support of Scintific Research in Ukraine: State and Ways of Improvement

Abstract

One of the many problematic issues of the development of science in Ukraine, which needs to be solved, is the improvement of the funding of scientific research. Chronic underfunding of the activities of scientific institutions, the implementation of scientific research and scientific and technical development of institutions of higher education, academies, institutes, individual scientific programs and granted grants has led to many negative trends in the development of science in Ukraine and bad consequences. Therefore, in the post-war period, when restoring and reforming the infrastructure of Ukraine, it is necessary to update and improve the system of financial support for scientific research. This will serve as the basis for the further development of science in the country.The article analyzes the financial support of scientific research for 2020-2022. The decline of Ukrainian science, the activity of scientific institutions and organizations in living conditions is due to significant underfunding of their work. Spending on scientific research and development in Ukraine has decreased by 40% over the past 11 years. Measured in US dollars, the share of spending on scientific research and development in GDP has almost halved (by 46%) from 0.75% in 2010. to 0.41% by 2020Chronic underfunding has led to a number of negative phenomena in the development of science, the main of which are the following: a decrease in the motivation of scientific workers, a very low level of average costs per employee (9.37 thousand US dollars in 2020 in Ukraine against 300 thousand dollars in the USA, $250,000 in Germany, $200,000 in France, etc.), a reduction in the number of scientific researchers, an increase in the departure of scientific personnel abroad, a low level of prestige and the image of scientific activity, a weak influx of young people into science etc.Thus, science in Ukraine is in a state of deep crisis, so the first step in thepost-war period is to significantly improve the funding of scientific research several times by increasing the share of GDP expenditures to 1.7%, as it is legally established in Ukraine. In the future, taking into account the rise of the country's economy,bring this indicator to the level of 2-3% of GDP, which is valid in EU countries.This norm is justified and successfully used in EU countries,and it is necessary to reach its level in Ukraine. This is a minimum, because the GDP of Ukraine is much lowerthan the developed countries of Europe. In addition, taking into account that Ukraine received the status of a candidate for EU membership, it is necessary that the norms of funding of science be approximated to the norms of European Union.