At its 76th session in December, the United Nations General Assembly declared 2022 the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development, which will officially start on June 30 – July 1 at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris; respective events will continue until June 30, 2023. However, the Year of the Basic Sciences is not only a “note of acknowledgement” for what has happened, but also a powerful impetus, stimulus, and opportunity to achieve more in the life-changing sciences. And what are our opportunities and prospects in the Year of Basic Sciences?
The paper by Academician of the NAS of Ukraine Vadym LOKTIEV in the Svit newspaper gives answers to this question.
While our authorities were deciding whether or not to include basic research in Ukraine’s science and innovation priorities, the United Nations Headquarters gave a very good news for those who professionally pursue science: the December General Assembly announced that year 2022 would pass under the general slogan “International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development” (IYBSSD 2022). Moreover, this was done quite consciously and on time, because unlike the owners of Ukrainian government offices, whose dream is to commercialize everything, including science, those who are “there” are very well aware of the significant dependence of human living standards on basic research.
The main focus of the Resolution approved by the UN member states and signed, is as follows: “The importance of basic sciences for the most successful achievement of the 17 goals set by the Sustainable Development Strategy until 2030, is becoming more important than ever”.
The main initiator of the Year was UNESCO, whose proposal was supported by the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) with the active support of the International Scientific Council (ISC) and its numerous partner organizations around the world, including academies and universities. Many of them are members of the Organizing Committee, among which, unfortunately, there are no Ukrainian institutions.
The UN Resolution emphasizes that the decision to hold the International Year of Basic Sciences is due to their extremely important role in the civilizational progress of mankind, as well as their growing impact on improving the quality of life of peoples inhabiting the planet Earth. In particular, there is a recent example when the basic sciences have made a decisive contribution to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, when, in fact, only basic research and the experience of professionals gained through their participation in such research, ensured our successful struggle for life. It has become the most striking and obvious result of the creation in a relatively short time of a series of rescue vaccines that have saved humanity from unexpected and dramatic losses that could be orders of magnitude greater. It is important that mathematicians, physicists, chemists, biologists, and representatives of other sciences, including medicine, were involved in the development and production of the drugs needed to prevent and treat the disease caused by the deadly coronavirus, which affected almost all continents.
However, the pandemic is not the most severe challenge facing the humanity of today and which can hardly be overcome without deep fundamental research. Without any doubt, their role in solving energy, information, environmental, defense, political and humanitarian challenges can be decisive. Understanding of this idea has become prevalent in all developed economies of the world, where science in general, and fundamental science in particular, has the role of a locomotive that pulls all other industries that ensure our existence, in order to make life on Earth better, safer and, in general, more harmonious in relations between people, nature and the environment.
Hence, the list of priorities of Ukrainian science looks incomprehensible (I would say, ridiculous), because the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine has decided to deprive national science of fundamental research.
Thus, in our country, fundamental research has a secondary role and acquires the status of stepdaughter. This list of “priorities” reflects the fundamental challenge facing Ukraine – the challenge of incompetence, when government officials are indifferent to the scientific and educational sphere, and have no idea what modern Ukrainian science can do if cared for as it deserves. How can they not understand today that without a fundamental component, science will not be able to create any original technology, not to mention its application.
Probably due to the resistance of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, which is responsible for the development of basic sciences, the proposed list was not approved by the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Education, Science and Innovation, which supported the draft Law 6445 on extending the old science priorities in Ukraine for the next year. Today we must do all possible to force the Ministry of Education and Science to develop such priorities, which would include basic science, because it concerns the current areas of development of all sectors of our economy that require renewal and reform. The new law is, of course, temporary, but extremely important, because it unfreezes the mechanism of state funding for science this year, which can be realized only for priority areas. The National Research Foundation eagerly awaits it, because it is unable to carry out one of its primary functions – to fund ongoing research projects.
I think that the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, whose statutory obligation is the development of basic research, should hold events this year that would manifest the level and objectives of basic science in Ukraine and for Ukraine, increase the status of new knowledge and its carriers – scientists and professors.
I hope that in the framework of the International Year we will be able to demonstrate that the basic sciences in Ukraine have received not only proper support, but also are recognized as a priority area of activity both in management circles and in society.
Vadym LOKTIEV, Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
Svit newspaper, № 3–4, 2022