Karanik on major requirements placed on science: focus on practical implementation, agility, efficiency
Belarusian scientists need to communicate more closely with the real sector of the economy in order to clearly understand its needs – as stated by the Chairman of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences, Vladimir Karanik, following his today’s report to President Aleksandr Lukashenko
As Mr. Karanik noted, like any structure in the state, the Academy of Sciences should respond to the modern challenges, since what was allowed a decade ago is becoming irrelevant today. “Therefore, the main requirements on the part of the Head of State and the real sector of the economy include the focus on practical implementation, agility and efficiency. No one urges us to abandon fundamental research, to refuse getting new knowledge or to become purely design bureaus of our large enterprises. Nevertheless, we are to clearly understand what problems our industry, our processors and agricultural workers are concerned about, and be ready to provide scientific and methodological support for solving these issues,” he said.
At the same time, Mr. Karanik believes not too much time should pass from an idea to the start of financing. After all, what is relevant now may simply not be needed by the real sector of the economy in a few years. “There must be a system that prevents irrelevant topics from appearing. It should work efficiently and more quickly," he explained, adding that the Academy of Sciences and scientists should communicate more closely with the real sector of the economy in order to better understand the topical issues and report on their capabilities. “Actually, we have competence and opportunities in many areas of activity, and $64m of NAS exports – which include a scientific research work and innovative products – in the first nine months of this year can confirm this. Differently speaking, the NAS’ developments enjoy demand abroad as well. Some of them are little known to our real economy, and we need to improve the situation in this regard. Therefore, both the structure and financing should be formed for the certain task.”
As for financing, Mr. Karanik mentioned an idea that will be discussed in detail at the upcoming large meeting with the scientific community: it deals with the division of funding for current activities and for scientific research – ‘so that the money allocated for science reaches researchers and everything needed for a study, and not so that part of this money is directed to solving topical issues that are in no way related to science’.
