One gets the impression that scientists and research centers and institutes are trying to protect themselves from the government. This is what Armenia’s Minister of Education and Science Arayik Harutyunyan said during the annual general assembly of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia (NAS) on 26 March.

According to him, the scientific community needs to understand that the government is their partner and that the new government’s approaches are radically different from those of the former government.

“The sole purpose of the government is to create conditions to achieve high results so that universities and research institutes don’t publish only 165 works,” the minister stated, but failed to clarify what makes the approach of the new government towards science different from the approach of the former government.

The minister went on to try to clarify the reason why the government hasn’t presented a strategy on the development of education and science yet, stating that “the government is still conducting a detailed study on the space and role-players”.

Harutyunyan said certain scientists are wrong when they say that the government has stopped funding the basic sciences and Armenian studies.

The minister added that both the government and businessmen need to work for the development of science, as is the case in developed countries where science serves business.

Touching upon the issue on funding for research institutes, Arayik Harutyunyan said the following: “The wave of protest was due to the fact that most research institutes that used to submit applications to participate in tenders didn’t meet the conditions from the perspective of scientific efficiency.”

On 26 March, the sessions hall of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia is hosting the annual general assembly devoted to the main results of scientific and scientific-organizational activities of the National Academy of Sciences in 2018.