Ukrainian scientists’ protest

Ukrainian scientists’ protest was held on 19th of April in the centre of Kyiv. Protesters demanded to allocate funds for the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU) and branch Academies of Sciences.

Financing of the National Academies of Sciences was reduced by 19% in the State Budget 2016.

‘This miserable funding does not cover even wages and their indexing, not to mention utilities and energy, maintenance and development of material and technical base, advanced research including to ensure defense capability and national security of the country,’ says the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

It was also noted that in current environment number of scientists is rapidly shrinking and outflow of talented youth is accelerating.

‘Today, Ukraine is 5-6 times losing the EU countries and is reducing to the level of Moldova or Albania in number of researchers per thousand of employed population. And this at the time when, according to UNESCO, the world’s number of researchers increased by 20% over the past five years,’ added the organisation.