This year, scientific institutes will receive greater funding based more on results achieved than previously. The institutes point out that the funding is still low for science altogether, remaining below 1% of GDP, Latvian Radio reported January 4.
Representative of the Ministry of Education and Science (IZM) Higher Education, Science and Innovation Department Jānis Paiders told Latvian that there would be a 30% growth in funding in 2022. The Ministry's budget provides for over €61 million in aid for science. Paiders said that some €35 million of these were planned for science base funding, which is 7.6 million more than previously.
The ministry will change its money-reallocation approach this year, placing more emphasis on the achievements, instead of the number of staff.
Representative of the young scientists' association Antra Boča said that although the increase is welcome, the funding is still far from desirable. "Science support will remain below 1% of GDP, but we want to reach this figure at 1.5% in the least. We welcome the fact that scientific performance will have a higher share in this calculation of base funding. In the long term, we would like to see that there is more stability in science, that there is a predictable increase in funding that really institutes and researchers can rely on, but in the short term, we would like to see that this additional money would help to overcome the structural funds' pause for postdoctoral grants that are currently over.”
