Next year, the Ministry of Education and Science will finance nearly 200 projects of young scientists for UAH 100 million – for 4 years the budget of the competition was increased 8 times

For 2020, the Ministry of Education and Science will finance a record project of young scientists for a record amount of UAH 100 million. It will be 199 works – 152 transitional from previous years and 47 new ones. Their list was approved by the relevant Contest Panel on November 22, 2019 at the Ministry of Education and Science.

Transition works will cost UAH 70 million, and new ones will cost UAH 30 million.

“In 2016, the Ministry of Education and Science started this competition – for young scientists – with a budget of UAH 12 million and funding of 79 works. This amount gradually increased, but next year we were able to set a record budget for the competition – UAH 100 million. For this money we will support almost 200 projects of young scientists. That is, not only the number of financed projects is increasing, but also the budget of each selected project”, – said the Minister of Education and Science Ganna Novosad, Chairman of the Competition Commission.

This year, young scientists submitted 316 projects to the MES. Their expertise was conducted by a special Expert Council, which includes, in particular, the young scientists themselves. There were 11 sections in the council – according to the directions of the competition.

Each project was evaluated by 5 experts. The total number of points was calculated as the arithmetic mean of 3 experts, in the range between the lowest and the highest. That is, the highest and lowest scores were ignored. This allowed for better and more objective expertise.

“According to the results of the examination, we saw a rather positive trend. So, in 2016, the Ministry of Education and Science received 439 projects from young scientists. Of these, 32 were high-level projects, and 48 were low-level ones. Now, out of 316 projects, 78 were already high-level and 14 – low. “That is, young scientists have embraced this format and realized that low-quality jobs have no chance of being supported. The competition brings together those who want to do truly high-quality science and supports the best,” said First Deputy Minister of Education and Science Yuri Polyukhovich. heads the Expert Council.

Funding for the new selected projects will start from 2020. Most of the new works were selected by directions:

• new technologies of production of materials, their processing, connection, quality control; material science; nanomaterials and nanotechnologies (9);
• new technologies of environmentally friendly production and construction, environmental protection, extraction and processing of minerals; chemical processes and substances in ecology; rational use of nature (7);
• economic transformations; demographic change and well-being of society (7).

Source: МESU