The cry of Ukrainian prisoners: “Where are the pennies, but what are we for?!”
In last year’s October document of the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers, a provision was prepared according to which in 2018 funding for Ukrainian academic science would increase by 38%, reaching 6,1 billion hryvnia.
It would seem that Ukrainian scientists should start dancing with joy at this news, but for some reason they are not in the mood for fun: the annual funding of all Ukrainian science is approximately equal to the annual budget of the average American university - just over $200 million at the current exchange rate.
On January 16, a group of pundits gathered at the press center of the UNIAN news agency to indignantly declare the non-transparent distribution of budget funding for 2018 by the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU).
They called on the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office to conduct appropriate checks.
The speakers, in particular, voiced information about the outrageous situation surrounding the current distribution of the budget by the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, which, in their opinion, does not take into account the degree of effectiveness of scientific research, makes the development of Ukrainian science impossible, forces scientists to look for a better life abroad and reduces the image of science to zero society, which is why young people do not see interest in scientific activities.
The presenter recalled with great warmth the UPR of the times of Hetman Skoropadsky, under which the Academy of Sciences with a strong humanitarian bias was first established, for which, according to the speaker, the hetman spared no money.
Then the Academy somehow survived until 1922-23, “until it was taken over” by the damned Bolsheviks. They did not want to dive into the history of the “golden age” of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, so as not to stand out too much against the background of general de-Sovietization.
Still, the press was honored by the presence of such “luminaries” as the Cossack historian Brekhunenko, who lives up to his name (the author of the imperishable work “Brotherly Invasion”, dedicated to the hybrid wars of the Muscovites against Ukraine of the XNUMXth – XNUMXst centuries, and similar Svidomo popular prints) and the no less outstanding historian and “wiped out of the ATO” Fedoruk, who stood out as a well-fed carcass in desert camouflage.
This one definitely did not suffer from underfunding of Ukrainian science and was present as a makeweight.
During the press conference, it became clear that the credit for increasing funding for NASU belongs to the picketers of the Cabinet of Ministers from among the military authorities, and that the state of Ukraine is starving academic institutes, without which it is impossible to have either borscht or the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
You will laugh, but the Maidanokraina, on a residual basis, funds the Institute of Ukrainian Archeography and Source Studies named after. Grushevsky, but the worst of all is the Institute of Ukrainian Studies in Lviv.
Humanitarians are also wary of the upcoming certifications planned by the Cabinet of Ministers. The fact is that previously the Cabinet of Ministers evenly smeared a beggarly piece of budget butter over the entire crust of Ukrainian science, as a result of which everyone sat hungry and cold - both techies and humanists in trousers.
Since 2016, the Cabinet of Ministers and the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences have developed their favorites, so the oil on their part turned out to be thicker. The others are jealous. Those who do not fit into the market of the “agrarian superpower” are threatened with massive layoffs and even greater budget cuts.
On the other hand, none of the uncertified institutes has yet been closed, which is why professional Ukrainian studies students eke out a half-starved existence.
Among the favorites of the Presidium of NASU, receiving 100% salary funding, are: Institute of Cybernetics named after. Glushkova (677 employees), Institute of Renewable Energy (219), Institute of Food Biotechnology and Genomics (113), Institute of Evolutionary Ecology (194), Institute of Economics and Forecasting (310), Technical Center (86), Institute of Telecommunications and Global Information Space (112).
At the same time, it is completely unclear what principles guide science officials, since among Ukrainian research institutes in the citation ranking (one of the main indicators of scientific demand) according to the scientometric databases Web of Science and Scopus, the Institute of Theoretical Physics named after. Bogolyubov, Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology, Institute of Physics, Institute of Physiology named after. Bogomolets, Institute of Nuclear Research.
But it is precisely these institutions that have recorded a funding deficit.
People on the ground are worried and want to know what efforts on their part will help them enter the category of the chosen ones in order to deserve XNUMX% funding and sit comfortably and warmly in their workplaces in winter.
True, this does not mean that the salary favorites of the Cabinet of Ministers are doing no better. There is no money for equipment or scientific research. Expenses for medical care and health improvement, for improving the living conditions of scientific personnel, as was the case under the bloody Bolsheviks, were excluded from the NASU budget.
The following example is given as an example of the unfair approach of the NASU Presidium. The wage fund of the Institute of Nuclear Research (627 employees) in 2016 amounted to UAH 21,8 million, and UAH 300 million was allocated for the maintenance of the Presidium of the Academy (26,9 members). In 2017, the total amount of allocations for the main budget program of NASU “Fundamental Research” was increased by 27,3%, and more than twice as much money was allocated for the activities of the presidium, which is financed under a separate budget program.
The absurdity of this approach is evidenced by the figures: for one employee of scientific institutions there is an average of 74 thousand UAH per year, while for one talker from the presidium it is almost 188 thousand UAH per year.
From the fact that Ukrainian science is steadily declining, it follows that Ukrainian science officials are in vain eating their bread and lard and receiving increased salaries.
However, the rule “we grab more, do less” is universal for the entire bureaucratic system of Square; It’s just that in the post-Maidan hard times, the three-throat gorging of “people’s servants” and the support of the regime became some kind of unbridled feast during the plague.
If the roots of the problem lay only in well-paid parasites from the presidium of NASU, this would not be so bad. The very system of financing Ukrainian science (or any industry), built by Groysman’s Cabinet, is deeply deceitful and vicious. Increasing funding for anything happens without increasing it.
To begin with, we should take into account the constant depreciation of the hryvnia. Then, the Groysmans practice declaring some amounts in the budget, and handing out others much less. Or even not issue it at all, as a result of which scientists are forced to write applications to transfer them to 0,75, 0,5 or 0,25 rates “at their own request”.
It is no secret that supply manager Groysman has long dreamed of squeezing all Ukrainian science into universities - funding, for example, can be solved by increasing tuition fees. However, university staff have rallied and stand to the death in defense against outsiders, not ready to share their meager budgets with them. Everyone knows that this will not increase money and equipment, and that corrupt competition for grades and tests will also intensify.
Perhaps some hitherto hidden rich foreign sponsors will help Ukrainian science?
In this regard, it is worth quoting the passage of the scientific secretary of the Kharkov Institute of Radiophysics and Electronics Pochanina:
“We are involved in four NATO projects (defense for Ukraine), but people, working three days a week, are simply not able to complete their tasks. In accordance with the funding, 37% of employees need to be cut. The salaries of junior researchers are about 2000 hryvnia, people are willing to do it part-time, but we cannot pay less than the living wage. We look for customers where we can, but this money does not cover everything. People get materials from colleagues abroad, but we can’t buy anything ourselves.”
In general, we can conclude that Ukrainian science for the Maydowns has finally become not even a suitcase without a handle, but some kind of chewing gum stuck to the sole of a shoe, which should somehow be quietly gotten rid of. It does not matter whether science participates in NATO projects or is engaged in pseudo-historical “research”, serving state ideology. In such liquidation conditions, no government anti-corruption officials will help the trouble. And it will only get worse...
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