Research Policy

In this section, incrEAST offers information on national research policies, structures, programmes and organisations in Azerbaijan.

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Context of research policy

The draft of the law about state RTD policy in an independent Azerbaijan was given the first reading in the Parliament of the Republic in 1998. After that, two readings have additionally taken place, but the law has not yet been accepted.

The ruling organisation which should regulate scientific and technological development in the country is unspecified. On the basis of the President’s decree (04.01.03), the ANAS is considered to be the main organisation which provides and organises the development of science in the Republic of Azerbaijan, carries out the scientific and technological policy of the the state, connects and leads the scientific research activity in all scientific and educational institutions. Alongside this, as stated in this decree, the duties of the ANAS are to participate or to give suggestions regarding the determination and qualification of the directions for scientific development and in general the directions for the scientific and technological policy. At the same time, in the regulations of the Ministry of Economic Development of Azerbaijan it is noted that the Ministry participates in the formation of the state innovation and scientific technological policy i.e. at present there is no concrete body which can determine the priorities of scientific, technological and innovation policy in the country.

The emphatically imposed state control of science found its expression in the belief that science was an expensive form of social consumption. Another consequence was the unwillingness or inability to reorganise the RTD system along the lines of certain generally accepted international standards or recommended norms of transitional restructuring. The management of science was centralised and conservative. The idea of the possible implementation of a strategy of development or transformation for the entire RTD complex has been practically eliminated from the country`s public and political life. 
The major problems in revitalising RTD concern the very low demand in industry for RTD results, the imbalance between basic, interdisciplinary and applied research, the need to build a stronger knowledge base in social sciences and humanities as well as the deterioration of the physical RTD infrastructure.

There have been some timid attempts at concentrating structural reforms on the government RTD sector, with the aim of adapting it to a market environment. 

In February 2004, the National Coordination Council on Organisation and Coordination of scientific research in the country was established. The ANAS President was elected as a Chairman of the Council. There are 29 members on the Council, including leading scientists of the country, responsible persons from the Presidential Administration, Cabinet of Ministries, Parliament, and heads of ministries and organisations, enterprises and research institutions. The Coordination Council consists of 28 problem councils on various scientific fields. By its statue, the Council considers and approves major directions of research and coordinates the R&D activities of all research institutions and higher education institutions in Azerbaijan. However, up until the beginning of 2008 the members of the Council had only several gatherings, which as a rule were not attended by the Government representatives and the ministers. Apparently the Government does not view the Council seriously.
In 2007, the Government decided to set up a fund to finance research projects in the framework of the Science Development Programme. In the state budget of the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2008, 5.016 million manats (about 6 million USD) are allocated for this fund. The statute of the fund and the mechanisms of financing the projects were issued at the beginning of 2008.

The absence of a clearly formulated, coordinated and publicly proclaimed science policy in Azerbaijan reflects the fact that the position of science in Azeri society and its development is not clearly defined. Lip service is paid to the social significance and achievements of science, but its true role is not recognised.

Research policy: objectives and priorities

The lack of a clear science policy is responsible for the continuous marginalisation of research and development work.
The research and development organisations, primarily the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, branch institutes and high educational centres, reflect the organisational dichotomy in Soviet science.
Neither objectives nor priorities of the research policy in Azerbaijan are determined.

Policy-making and coordination

Worldwide-accepted methodologies such as foresight in science and technology have never been implemented in Azerbaijan, although the R&D community has generated some proposals in this direction. One usual explanation for this is that most of the stakeholders are not educated and trained in implementing foresight activities. There is a lack of confidence in the stakeholders, an absence of systematic work in this field and very strong influence from politics rather than policy awareness. The existing S&T policy documents have been set up practically without evaluation procedures and professional expertise.

The difficult economic situation in the country is the reason why the R&D community tries to preserve its financing from the budget as there are no other funding sources. As all initiatives for pushing technology transfer and the development of commercial utilisable R&D are only in the process of being set-up or have even been discontinued, the R&D system practically remains separated from the rest of the economy and society.

National research programmes

There are no national research programmes in Azerbaijan.

Source: ANAS
Last up-date: 16.04.2008