Neither the former nor incumbent authorities have actually funded science, and this concerns salaries, equipment and scientists’ trips abroad. This is what President of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia Radik Martirosyan told reporters today.

Martirosyan recalled that security is determined by science and that it is necessary to ask if the current level of funding meets the demand or not. “Scientific workers in Armenia receive salaries that are less than the average indicators in the country. For comparison, the salary of a scientific worker in Russia is double the average salary, and in China and South Korea — 5-10 times higher,” he stated.

As far as the news that the authorities might restructure or close the National Academy of Sciences, Martirosyan explained by saying that this is a bill on the status of institutes that are part of the system of the National Academy of Sciences