Kazakhstan increaseed funding of science 2.5-fold in two years

Science financing has increased 2.5-fold over the past two years in Kazakhstan, Tengrinews.kz reports citing Kazakhstan government’s press-service referring to Kazakhstan Minister of Education and Science Bakytzhan Zhumagulov as saying at the meeting of the Supreme Scientific and Technical Commission attended by Kazakhstan Prime-Minister Serik Akhmetov. “Thanks to the President’s support, the total financing of science grew almost 2.5-fold over the last two years: from 20 billion tenge ($133 million) in 2010 to 48 billion tenge ($320 million) in 2012. We have never had such a growth,” Zhumagulov said speaking of implementation of Kazakhstan’s Science Law. The Minister said that new forms of funding of science were introduced by the law. Financing of scientific researches has been made part of core financing of eduction institutions. At the same time the Minister believes that it is necessary to change the structure of expenses. “We have to invest more money in developments, infrastructure, equipment and quality of research. Good science requires serious expenses: this is a fundamental truth,” Zhumagulov said. “Five priorities have been defined in science. Four of them – energy, materials and goods processing, IT-technologies, life science – are directly aimed at innovations. The fifth priority -- the country’s intellectual potential -- covers fundamental research and humanities,” the Minister said. The Education and Science Minister also noted growth of the number of young experts in science. According to him, the turning point has already happened: young people now go into science. A share of universities in the scientific projects has grown from 33 percent in 2010 to 57 percent in 2012. The Minister also talked about the tasks to be solved in the nearest future; they include technological modernization of the scientific infrastructure, synchronization of science with innovative development and motivation of cooperation between science and business.