ArmInfo. Scientific workers with an academic degree involved in budgetary basic programs and working full time from January 1, 2024 will receive an additional payment. The decision was made at a meeting of the Armenian Cabinet of Ministers on January 4.
As the Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of Armenia Zhanna Andreasyan stated when presenting the draft decision, such an indicator as the equivalent of full employment of actual scientific workers per 1 million inhabitants occupies an important place in the UN sustainable development goals. This shows the proportion of researchers who are full-time and engaged in scientific activities. According to the minister, this indicator in Armenia is quite low. In general, we have 2,455 such researchers, which is approximately 830 per 1 million inhabitants, and in this indicator we lag far behind other countries, including the region. It is therefore necessary that policy instruments encourage the continued scientific activity of researchers.
"In this sense, I would like to note that since 2008, a government decree has been in force, according to which scientific workers, in case of participation in government funding programs, received an additional payment for an academic degree: candidates of science in the amount of 25 thousand drams and doctors of science in the amount of 50 thousand drams. Moreover, the scientists were given the bonus if they participated in the state funding programs, even in the case of minimum and high salary," she said.
She recalled that since January 2022, the RA government has been pursuing a policy of increasing the salaries of scientific workers; at the moment, a situation has arisen where, in fact, even in the case of part-time work, the minimum wage threshold for scientific workers has been exceeded, as a result of which the current procedure has simply turned into a tool providing additional payment without preconditions.
"We initiated these changes, which regulate the conditions for providing additional payment for an academic degree, while maintaining the same amount of additional payment," Andreasyan said.
According to the minister, it is important that scientific activity is considered as a professional and main activity. "We estimate that 778 of the 2,162 degree holders currently enrolled in core funding programs will have trouble meeting these conditions. Thus, we will encourage them to switch to working with a full load," she noted.
