On the World Science Day for Peace and Development, more than 50 young scientists came to the Parliament to talk to the leaders of the Verkhovna Rada and the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, “test” the Chairman’s chair, talk about ambitious plans and, most importantly, receive the Verkhovna Rada Prize for Young Scientists.
Laureates with the heads of the Parliament and the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Maybe one day one of them will say: this is my photo with the Ukrainian Nobel laureate!
Prior to the official presentation, Serhiy Babak, Chairman of the Committee on Education, Science and Innovation, met with the young scientists. He said that since 2008, 20 works were awarded this prize, and the amount of the award was 20,000 hryvnias. But because of inflation this amount (which is divided by the number of co-authors of the work, and they may be two, three or four) was enough only for paperwork and arrival in the capital city for awards presentation. Therefore, in 2019 the award regulations were revised, its size increased (up to 126 thousand 120 hryvnias) and the number of winning works also increased (up to thirty). In the future, this amount and the number of winning works will continue to increase.
NEXT STEP IS IMPLEMENTATION
The Committee Chairman’s conversation with the scientists was sincere and frank. Serhiy Babak explained that funding for science in general is as follows: about ten billion is channeled to the Academy of Sciences, one billion – to higher education institutions and another billion – to the National Research Foundation. “We want to gradually increase the amount of funds for grant funding,” Serhiy Babak said. “We really want the results of your work to be implemented. We must not lose them! I suggest thinking together how they can be implemented in a particular area, what government programs are needed.”
The Chairman of the Committee also said that amendments will be made to the Customs and Tax Codes, which, in particular, will exempt from import duties goods imported by state research institutions and higher education institutions (equipment, reagents, etc.). “I hope that the changes will take effect from January 1, 2022,” the Chairman of the Committee said. “But we need to be sure that this norm will not open a loophole for business companies that will be able to import equipment for their own needs using scientific institutions.”
However, future changes in science and education depend not only on parliamentary decisions. Serhiy Babak is convinced that only together with education institutions, academies and scientific institutions it is possible to bring order to this sphere and bring science to the world level.
During the awarding ceremony, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk, the First Deputy Chairman Oleksandr Kornienko, the President of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Anatoliy Zagorodniy greeted the young scientists.
– You produce results that move the economy and society, – Ruslan Stefanchuk said. – I like to be proud of the country whose representatives win gold medals at the Olympics, and I want to be proud of the country that has Nobel laureates!
Oleksander Kornienko said that it is planned to make a decision on awarding prizes (each of one hundred thousand) to school graduates that have passed the External Independent Testing with the highest scores. “It’s a “long game”, we understand that these students are the potential of the country and will succeed in science in the future as well,” he said.
By the way, almost all of 2021graduates, who received the best results in EIT, chose technical and natural sciences, in particular, engineering, computer science, systems analysis, applied mathematics, etc.
Of the thirty works that received the Verkhovna Rada Prize, ten belong to young scientists of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The President of the National Academy of Sciences Anatoliy Zagorodniy said that the quality of these studies is very high, and such works will determine the image of Ukraine as a scientific state in the future. “It is good that the award ceremony takes place on the World Science Day for Peace and Development,” Anatoliy Zagorodniy said. “This high day is a good opportunity to remind society that science is the basis of civilization. And everything around us is created by scientific achievements.”
During the meeting, young scientists proposed many suggestions. In particular, a researcher from the L.V. Pysarzhevsky Institute of Physical Chemistry of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Olga Larina offered to support scientists who gave birth to children. The global practice is known: the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris provides grants to women scientists who have given birth and want to continue their research.
SNAILS AND CARS
Svit newspaper asked scientists: what are the areas they have achieved success and how do they plan to implement their inventions?
One of the winners – malacologist Olena Uvaieva, received the award for the work “Practical use of mollusks for cleaning and bioindication of water basins, prevention of trematodes.” Olena teaches at the Department of Ecology of Zhytomyr Polytechnic State University.
She has been interested in mollusks and freshwater species since school, studied them at the Junior Academy of Sciences, then while studying at the higher education institution. “The role of mollusks in water treatment is very important, because our rivers are very dirty,” she explained. “We can use mollusks as indicators (to determine water quality). My latest research is on edible snails, terrestrial mollusks that are now widely bred by farmers in Ukraine and around the world.”
The university has a powerful malacological school, and Ms. Uvaieva involves both schoolchildren and students in the research. She considers working with young scientists to be her most important task for the future.
The authors of another work, “Development of the theory of processes of energy transformation and generation by asynchronous generators”, Associate Professor of Mikhail Ostrogradsky Kremenchuk National University Natalia Zachepa and senior lecturer of this HEI Volodymyr Chenchevoy came from Kremenchuk. Ms. Zachepa explained that they studied energy transformation in nuclear power systems. The results of their work (after additional completion) will be useful in agricultural production, defense industry, etc.
The results of the work “Innovative improvement of support structures of freight cars and increasing their strength characteristics”, which was performed by researchers of the Research and Implementation Center (which is a structural unit of the “Research and Design Institute of Railway Transport” branch of the JSC ” Ukrzaliznytsia” (Ukrainian Railways) Vyacheslav Petrenko, Liudmyla Yatsenko, Serhiy Kara and Oleksiy Koshel, have already been implemented. “We have proposed technology for the restoration of grain wagons,” the Head of the Center Vyacheslav Petrenko explained. “Earlier such cars were written off the books, and each new one costs 50-60 thousand dollars. About fifty cars have already been restored using our technology! ”
Svitlana GALATA
Svit newspaper, № 43 – 44, November 2021