Teaduse rahastus majanduslanguse ajal

Arvan, et kõik on teadlikud tänasest majandusolukorrast ning vajadusest väljaminekuid kitsendada. Samas hulk riike, kes on pikaajaliselt paika pannud kindlad prioriteedid, jätkavad teaduse finantseerimist samas mahus.

Toon siinjuures välja mõningad näited riikide soovist tagada teaduse areng ka tulevikus:

Prantsuse valitsus eraldas teaduse- ja arengutegevuse infrale veel 46 miljonit eurot
The French government is to invest an extra 46 million euros in large scientific facilities during 2009, research minister Valérie Pécresse has announced. The 17 per cent increase will bring the total budget for projects such as the Soleil synchrotron outside Paris and the work of French scientists on international projects such as the Large Hadron Collider and ITER to 319m euros over the period.
The cash comes as part of president Nicolas Sarkozy’s 26 billion euro economic rescue package, which was announced in December. Pécresse was given the go-ahead for the decision by Patrick Devedjian, the minister charged with putting the rescue plan into operation.
An extra 14.2m euros will be invested in interdisciplinary facilities such as Soleil and the neutron spectrometer facility Orphée in Saclay, while 10.3m euros will be directed towards condensed matter physics. 7.8m euros will go towards supporting computing facilities. The remainder of the investment will be divided between ITER, biology infrastructures, oceanographic facilities and IT services for research.
Allikas: Research Day Europe 4 Febr 2009; French governmental announcement.

Soome valitsus stimuleerib teadust abipaketiga
The Finnish scientific community has pointed out that one of the means available would be to boost research funding, which would help provide a way out of recession. When Finland was last struck by a recession, in the 1990s, weighty decisions were made about stepping up R&D funding. As a result, Finland was brought out of the trough of the previous recession, and in the present situation, forceful investments into knowledge and know-how would be likely to produce equally good results.
The last two governments set a goal of raising national investment in research funding to four per cent of GDP by 2011. The latest forecasts for GDP and R&D funding suggest that this goal will not be reached. Public R&D funding as a percentage of GDP came to 0.94 per cent in 2008, which puts it below the one per cent target set by the EU. About 25 per cent of government research funding goes to the universities, whose percentage has fallen compared with 2000.
allikas: Academy of Finland Newsletter, January 2009

Prantsusmaa uusim ülikool saab 375 miljoni euro suuruse süsti
Strasbourg University - which was founded at the beginning of this year following a merger of three local institutions - is to benefit from 375 million euros in government funding for the redevelopment of its facilities. The money announced by Pecresse will come from the Operation Campus fund, a 5 billion euro programme to fund the regeneration of 10 campuses across the country.
The government announced 575m euros for higher education facilities in Lyon at the end of January as part of the programme and is expected to make announcements on how the remaining money will be carved up in the near future.
Allikas: Research Day Europe 11 Febr 2009

Mainzi Ülikool sai 100 miljoni eurose eraannetuse
The University of Mainz has received 100 million euros from a private donor to create a life sciences research centre in one of the biggest philanthropic donations ever made to university research in Germany. The money was provided by the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation, a foundation that supports basic research in medicine. The federal state of Rheinland-Pfalz announced during the donor ceremony on 6 February that it would top up these funds with an additional 30m euros.
The centre will be constructed and created over the next ten years. The first researchers are expected to start working at its labs by the end of 2010, and the centre is expected to create around 100 jobs for highly qualified personnel.
Allikas. Research Day Europe 10 Febr 2009; University of Mainz statement.


On mille üle järelemõelda!