Financing of science increased by 80% in 2012

The total volume of financing of scientific projects made KZT 48 bln in 2012, Minister of Education and Science of Kazakhstan Bakhytzhan Zhumagulov said at the Governmental Hour in the Majilis of the Parliament of Kazakhstan, according to Kazakh Prime Minister's official website pm.kz.

"The volume of funds allocated for development of science has significantly increased over the last two years. It was at the level of KZT 26.8 bln in 2011 and it made over KZT 48 bln in 2012 which is an 80% increase comparing with the previous year," B. Zhumagulov said.

As is known, scientific projects are financed on grant and program-targeted system. According to the Minister, KZT 14.7 bln was allocated for grant financing of 1174 scientific projects in 2012 and KZT 24.7 bln - for program-targeted financing and KZT 8.6 bln - for basic financing.

Besides, the Minister noted that one of the key aspects in the scientific sphere was development of innovations for industry and economy as a whole.

"In order to develop the offices of commercialization, the contest of innovations and selection of research institutes and universities were held. This year, 9 pilot offices of commercialization are planned to open in the country," B. Zhumagulov added.

It is worth noting that the issue of ensuring access to foreign resources of scientific and technical information was addressed for the first time in the territory of the CIS member countries. "We have signed the National License of Thomson Reuters (USA) and the agreements with Springer Company (Germany) and Netherland's scientific publishing company Elsevier.

A new model of science management in the Law "On science" has been introduced in Kazakhstan. This Law has changed the scientific sphere and it primarily touched upon distribution of administrative and expert functions. Now, scientific community itself takes a decision on financing of scientific projects.