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Science
 As
far back as in the early 20th century, institutions of higher education and
research institutes were nonexistent in Belarus, but currently the republic
possesses substantial intellectual and scientific/engineering potential
capable of extremely efficiently addressing scientific problems in the
interests of developing the national economy and social sphere, and
furthering progress of education and culture. This potential is a critical
factor contributing to a sustainable socioeconomic development of the
country, higher competitiveness of the national economy, technical
refurbishment of the real sector of the economy through introduction of
innovative and high technologies.
Actually, all types of activities in the production, social and
administrative spheres are scientifically supported to greater or lesser
extent. In 2001, institutions reporting to 20 ministries, 10 concerns, 5
State Committees, the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (NASB), and
other departments and also entities without any departmental subordination
were involved in research and development. 299 research, designing,
technological and other organizations, institutions of higher education and
enterprises operated in that sphere. The major portion of the scientific and
engineering potential of the republic (over 80%) is aggregated in the
Ministries of Industry, Education, Agriculture and Food, Health, in NASB,
Belarusian State University and Belneftekhim Concern. The main scientific
center in Belarus is Minsk — 185 organizations in the capital (61.9% of the
total research organizations in the country) are involved in research and
development.
The size of the research personnel doing research and development in Belarus
amounted to 32.1 thousand people as of the early 2002, of this number, 70.1%
had a higher education. 3.7 thousand people had a scientific degree of a
Candidate of Sciences and 831 — Doctor of Sciences. Of the total number of
the scientific personnel, researchers accounted for nearly 59.6%, technical
and auxiliary staff — 28.2%. 50.2% of the total number of researchers in the
country worked in the private sector, 39.0% in the state sector and 10.8% in
the higher education sector. Although the tendency of brain drain from the
science sector, which emerged in the 1990s, has not been reversed, the rate
of this brain drain somewhat reduced.
The research and developments of the Belarusian scientists are aimed at
addressing problems in the priority spheres of scientific and
scientific/engineering activity. This includes development of the statehood
of Belarus; maintaining health of the population, liquidation of the
Chernobyl nuclear disaster consequences; environmental protection;
production, processing and storage of farm produces; power engineering and
transportation; informatization, telecommunication and communication;
resource saving technologies, novel materials and processes; and increasing
competitiveness of the machine-building and radioelectronics sectors’
products. The priority is given to research and development in the sphere of
engineering, natural and social sciences: they made up 37.8%, 34.3% and
9.5%, respectively in 2001. The fundamental research in the R&D structure
accounted for 23.0%, applied research — 24.6%, developments — 52.4%.
The resources of the republican budget and innovation funds annually
established in the republican state administrative bodies through
allocations from organizations and enterprises reporting to them are used to
finance scientific, scientific/engineering and innovative activity in the
Republic of Belarus. The researches made in 2001 by the research
institutions are estimated at BYR 179.8 billion. Engineering research and
development made up 80% of all research, scientific and engineering services
— 6.7%. Although these researches are budgetary financed through
appropriations which reached 50.1% in 2001 of the total amount of internal
expenditures for these purposes, funding of the Belarusian science from own
resources of institutions and enterprises increased 2-fold (up to 14.3%)
over the last 5 years. R&D expenditures as percentage of the gross domestic
product (GDP), i.e. the share of completed scientific research and
development of the total GDP, has been maintained at the level of 0.8-0.9%
in Belarus over the recent years, that is much higher than that in the
majority of the CIS countries. This indicator is to be doubled by 2005
according to the Program of Social and Economic Development of the Republic
of Belarus for 2001-2005.
 In
accordance with the Law of the Republic of Belarus On Fundamentals of the
National Scientific and Engineering Policy (1993) being the guideline in the
scientific and engineering sphere, a critical importance is attributed to
continuously improving the system of the governmental regulation of the
scientific activity, strengthening and building up the scientific and
engineering potential of the country and orienting it to the needs of the
real sectors of economy and specific enterprises. The Decree of the
President of the Republic of Belarus On Improving the State Administration
in the Science Sphere (No.7 of 5 March 2002) became a next step in this
direction. In accordance with this Decree, the Science and Technology
Committee of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus, NASB and
the Highest Certifying Commission of the Republic of Belarus, the functions
and authorities of which are distinctly defined, form now the system of the
state administrative bodies in the science sphere.
The Science and Technology Committee reports to the Government of the
Republic of Belarus and is a republican body pursuing the national policy
and effecting the state regulation in the sphere of the scientific and
innovation activity, as well as protecting intellectual property rights. The
National Center of Intellectual Property has been incorporated into the
Committee for this purpose to perform important governmental functions in
examining scientific and engineering decisions, trade marks and service
marks, issuing protection documents, providing patent and information
documentation and training personnel in the intellectual activity sphere.
To legally protect the results of intellectual work and their
commercialization, the Belarusian authorities created the necessary
conditions and adopted and put into effect the Laws On Patents for
Inventions and Useful Models, Patents for Designs, Trademarks and Service
Marks, Legal Protection of Integrated Circuits Topology and Patents for
Plant Varieties. In addition to the national patent laws, the relations in
the sphere of industrial property protection are regulated by international
agreements the Republic of Belarus being the party to. Over the last 10
years, nearly 6 thousand patents for inventions, useful models and designs,
over 12 thousand trademarks, 62 new plant varieties, 1,140 licensing
agreements and assignment agreements have been registered. Totally, over 50
thousand trademarks and service marks are in effect in the Republic of
Belarus. Sales of industrial property objects through licensing agreements
are being expanded both in external and domestic markets.
The Highest Certifying Commission reports directly to the President of the
Republic of Belarus and is in charge for the state regulation in the sphere
of scientific and scientific/pedagogical personnel of the higher
qualification, awards academic degrees and titles of an assistant professor
and a professor. Over 10 years of existence of the national system of
certification of scientific and scientific/pedagogical personnel, the
academic degree of the Doctor of Sciences was awarded to 652 and that of
Candidate of Sciences to 3,333 candidates for academic degree, the title of
the professor and assistant professor was awarded to 450 and 1,896
scientists and specialists, respectively. 184 Dissertation Defense Councils
encompassing 279 academic specialties of different science sectors
functioned in the republic as of the early 2002.
The personnel policy in the scientific sphere is primary concern of the
republican authorities that take the necessary actions to build up the
scientific potential of the state and socially protect scientific workers.
To raise prestige of the intellectual and creative work, the Belarusian
legislation provides for monthly bonuses for academic degrees and titles
including for the title of an academician and a corresponding member of the
NASB. The Decrees of the President of the Republic of Belarus enforce
measures of the state support aimed at enhancing a creative activity of
scientific workers and stimulating highly qualified specialists to work in
the science sphere. The Belarusian Government approved the National Program
Scientific Personnel for 2002-2006 providing for target training of
specialists based on the state order, better training of specialists in the
innovation management sphere, development of effective mechanisms of
stimulating scientific and innovation activities, more extensive involvement
of the Belarusian specialists in international research and educational
programs. The Program components are to be funded from the republican
budget.
 The
NASB is the highest state scientific organization of the Republic of Belarus
reporting to the President of the Republic of Belarus and accountable to the
Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus. It is in charge of
organization, conducting and coordination of the fundamental and applied
scientific research and development. The Academy of Sciences founded in 1929
and awarded the status “National” in 1997 comprises 94 full members
(academicians), 130 corresponding members, 3 honorary and 16 foreign members
of the NASB, scientific organizations and other legal entities reporting to
it. The NASB comprises over 130 organizations and enterprises including 70
research institutes, divisions and centers. It employs 16 thousand people
including 10 researchers, about 2,270 Candidates of Sciences and 610
Doctors of Sciences.
To build up its status and expand responsibilities, the NASB, as a
republican body, is authorized to regulate specific issues related to
funding scientific and innovation activities, developing informatization and
scientific and engineering information system, overseeing efficient spending
of governmental resources appropriated for funding research and development
and also conducting scientific and engineering examination. In 2002, to
effectively address the problems the NASB faced, the Academy of Agrarian
Sciences of the Republic of Belarus, Belarusian Republican Fund for
Fundamental Research, Belarusian Innovation Fund, Informatization Fund of
the Republic of Belarus, Belarusian State Scientific and Production Concern
of Intersectoral Machine Building and Instrument Making, Belarusian State
Scientific Concern of Powder Metallurgy were integrated into it, and the
National Center of Information Resources and Technologies, Innovation
Association Academtechnopark and other structural units were established.
In accordance with the Law of the Republic of Belarus On the National
Academy of Sciences of Belarus and the NASB Statute approved by the
President of the Republic of Belarus, the Academy of Sciences functions by
combining principles of the state administration of the scientific activity
and scientific self-administration. The main scientific and organizational
NASB subdivision, incorporating academicians and corresponding members of
one or several science spheres, is a science division that is in charge of
scientific and other organizations. In 2002, the Academy of Sciences
comprised Departments of Physics, Mathematics and Informatics; Department of
Physical and Engineering Sciences; Department of Chemical Sciences and Earth
Sciences; Department of Biological Sciences; Department of Medical and
Biological Sciences, Department of Agrarian Sciences; Department of
Humanitarian Sciences and Arts; it is planned to establish the Department of
Economics and Management.
The Academy of Sciences is headed by NASB President who is the member of the
Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus and is appointed to the
office by the President of the Republic of Belarus. The activity of the
Academy of Sciences is administered by collective bodies, namely, the
General Meeting and NASB Presidium. The General Meeting is the highest NASB
administrative body comprising NASB academicians and corresponding members,
Heads and representatives of the NASB scientific institutes, as well as
representatives of scientific institutes of ministries, other republican
state administrative bodies and institutions of higher education. The
General Meeting is a representative body of the entire Belarusian scientific
community and its decisions relating to organization and coordination of
research and development are binding for all research entities. The NASB
Presidium, accountable to the General Meeting, is formed from among
scientific workers of the Academy of Sciences, institutions of higher
education and research institutes, Chiefs of the state administrative bodies
and main specialists of the economy sectors. Its executive body — the NASB
Presidium Bureau — comprises the President of the Academy of Sciences,
Vice-Presidents and Chief Scientific Secretary. The numerical composition
and personnel membership of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences are
approved by the President of the Republic of Belarus.
The NASB is in charge of conducting and coordinating research and
development in most critical spheres of natural, engineering, the humanities
and social sciences and arts to obtain new knowledge about a human, society,
nature and artificially created objects, to build up scientific and
technical, intellectual and spiritual potential of the Republic of Belarus.
The major objectives of the NASB are also to provide a scientific support of
the economic, social and state-legal development of Belarus, its culture,
natural resources management and environmental protection; to identify
principally new ways of scientific and technical progress, participate in
preparing recommendations for practical use of achievements of the national
and world science, etc.
 Research
and development are conducted by the NASB scientists in collaboration with
research institutes and institutions of higher education, designing bureaus,
associations and enterprises. Their activities are administered in
accordance with the priorities approved by the President of the Republic of
Belarus and the Government and this administration is traditionally based on
program and target methods, thereby guaranteeing a target spending of
resources and orienting them to the priority spheres.
The program and target methods of managing fundamental research have been
used in the republic for over 20 years. In the recent years, they have been
mainly organized and coordinated through the state programs of fundamental
research, the procedure of designing, funding and execution of which was
approved by the Government of the Republic of Belarus in 2000. In accordance
with the List of Priority Directions of Fundamental Scientific Research in
Belarus for 2002-2005, currently 150 institutions and organizations are
involved in implementing 44 state fundamental research programs that yielded
a number of important theoretical and practical scientific results. Many of
them are of critical importance for developing science and technologies and
addressing urgent problems of different economy sectors and social sphere.
The Belarusian scientists reached a significant progress in the different
spheres of fundamental research. Achievements of scientific schools in the
sphere of mathematics, theoretical physics, spectroscopy and luminescence,
laser physics, electronics, automation, thermophysics, material science,
machine building, geology, bioorganic chemistry, physiology, genetics,
selection, soil science, cardiology, surgery, linguistics, etc. are known
worldwide and have been highly appraised in Belarus and enjoyed an
international recognition. Findings of some researches have the highest rank
of significance and are registered as scientific discoveries. This includes
ultrasonic capillary effect, phenomenon of mobility of double bonds in
cyclic diene compounds, phenomenon of stabilization-labilization of
electron-excited polyatomic molecules, phenomenon of nuclear precession of
neutrons, phenomenon of lateral displacement of a light beam upon
reflection, phenomenon of plane-of-polarization rotation of hard
gamma-quanta, phenomenon of regulation of hyperparasitism by immunity of
vertebrates, phenomenon of formation of hydrogen-saturated zone in a metal
subsurface layer during friction, protective property of shielding pigments
of organs of vision of humans and animals, regularity of change in brain
natural acoustic oscillations, and property of synovial medium contributing
to high antifrictional characteristics of cartilage of joints of humans and
animals.
 Applied
research and development are mainly conducted within the framework of 32
state scientific and technical programs designed to solve most important
economic, environmental and social problems for 2001-2005, and also within
the framework of sectoral and regional scientific and technical programs and
innovations projects. In 1993, the Republic of Belarus was the first among
the CIS countries to develop a legal framework and the framework-based
system for administering state scientific and technical programs, which
became the major tool for addressing priority targets of the scientific and
engineering activity. The results obtained through these programs have
contributed to the progress over the recent years in motor and tractor
industries, in microelectronics, to development of the urban transport,
equipment for liquidation emergencies, sophisticated TV sets, medical
equipment, pharmaceuticals, artificial diamonds, sensory equipment, etc.
 In
2000 alone, in the course of addressing targets set by the scientific and
technical programs and innovation projects 504 new types of machines,
equipment and instrumentation, 327 new types of materials and substances,
424 novel processes, 46 agricultural crop varieties and hybrids, 26 types of
pharmaceuticals were developed and found use in the practical application;
114 new types of products of microelectronics, machine building and
instrument making, farming and drugs were started up for serial production.
Most of developments are competitive and 125 patents for inventions were
received and 175 applications for patents were filed. New perspective
baselines of motor-vehicle trains, commuter and urban buses, mine dump
trucks, inexpensive and energy-intensive tractors, diesel engines,
integrated circuits, discrete semiconductor devices, unique mechano-optical
and processing equipment, metal-cutting tools and tools, computers,
television and communication equipment have been launched. Baselines served
the basis for developing a number of modified products to technically
refurbish enterprises and build up export potential of the Belarusian
economy.
 The
information support of the scientific and engineering activity in Belarus is
provided in accordance with the Law of the Republic of Belarus On Scientific
and Engineering Information adopted 5 May 1999 defining the fundamentals of
the national policy in the sphere of scientific and engineering information,
the procedure of formulating and pursuing it in the interests of scientific
and technical, economic and social progress of the country. The NASB Central
Scientific Library, Republican Scientific and Technical Library of Belarus,
Republican Scientific Medical, Pedagogical and Agricultural libraries,
Universities’ and other libraries provide researchers and specialists with
the needed scientific literature. Scientific papers, periodicals,
collections, popular-scientific and reference literature relating to an
extensive range of science and engineering sectors are published by the
specialized NASB Publishing House Belaruskaya Navuka, publishing centers of
scientific institutes and institutions of higher education. A number of
scientific journals, including international, are published in Belarus.
Among them, Belarusian Linguistics, Belarusian Economic Journal,
Computational Methods in Applied Mathematics, Doklady of the National
Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences of Belarus (7 thematic series), Journal of Applied Spectroscopy,
Journal of Engineering Physics and Thermodynamics, Lithosphere,
Materials-Technologies-Tools, Nonlinear Phenomena in Complex Systems, News
of Beam Diagnostics, Sociology, Friction and Wear, Natural Resources, etc.
Part of them is published in English or is translated, reissued and
distributed all over the world by prestigious scientific publishers Kluwer
Academic/Plenum Publishers and Allerton Press. In the recent years, more
efforts have been made to develop the system of scientific and engineering
information based on the state-of-the-art information technologies. A
unified scientific information computer network and integrated automated
library systems are being developed. To popularize scientific and
engineering achievements of the Belarusian scientists, ministries, NASB,
research institutes, institutions of higher education and scientific
societies efficiently use capacities of the global information computer
network — the Internet.
An integral part of the national scientific and technical policy of the
Republic of Belarus is the international scientific cooperation within the
framework of which Belarusian scientists and specialists conduct research
and development jointly with foreign counterparts, and establish strong
relations with international academic organizations. The international
intergovernmental treaties and agreements serve as a legal basis for such
cooperation. The Republic of Belarus concluded and executes over 30
bilateral and more than 10 multilateral (within the CIS) agreements on
scientific and engineering cooperation. The collaboration is being
intensified with the International Association for Promotion of Cooperation
with Scientists from the New Independent States of the Former Soviet Union
(INTAS), International Science and Technology Center (ISTC), International
Center for Scientific and Technical Information (ICSTI), Joint Institute of
Nuclear Research (JINR), European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN), NATO
Science Committee, etc. The Belarusian scientists participated in
implementation of over 300 research projects through annually held INTAS
open contests. The UNESCO, IAEA, INCO-Copernicus, CRDF and other
organizations’ projects are also being implemented. The scientific and
engineering cooperation with CIS countries and Russian Federation within the
framework of the Belarus-Russia union state is prioritized.
The Program of Social and Economic Development of the Republic of Belarus
for 2001-2005 approved by the second All-Belarusian People’s Meeting and
approved by the President of the Republic of Belarus spells out objectives,
targets and priorities of the social and economic development of the country
for the first 5-year period of the new century, substantiates the system of
actions for improving mechanisms to implement them in which the science is
to play a major role. The main goals of developing the scientific sphere in
a short-term period are to increase the level of fundamental and applied
research and development, support scientifically and technically the
accelerated social and economic development of the state, maintain and build
up scientific and intellectual potential of the Belarusian society, improve
the system of training of the scientific, scientific/engineering and
scientific/pedagogical personnel and keep them committed to science.
Attaining these goals would create the necessary conditions and
prerequisites for forming a highly technological sector of the national
economy and its transition to the innovation way of development, thereby
allowing Belarus to adequately integrate into the world division of labor
and domestic needs of the country and its citizens to be met.
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