Research Structure

Research indicators (2012)

Source: Science and Innovation Activities. Statistical book. National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus. 2013.

The total number of R&D personnel is 30.4 thousand (66.6/10 thous. of employed in the economy and 32.2/10 thous. of population) including 19.3 thous. researchers . On the contrary to negative tendencies of 2001-2005, by 2009 the number of R&D personnel increased 7%, the number of researchers – 12%. However, the financial and economic crisis has dropped back these indicators to the level of the year 2005. Women represent 41% of the total number of researchers.

The largest share of researchers work in the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (NAS) and industrial companies subordinated to the Ministry of Industry (30% and 23% respectively). Despite the fact that the number of R&D personnel in industry grew significantly during the last years, R&D is still dominantly undertaken in extra-mural R&D organisations, mainly in the NAS.

Distribution of researchers

Source: On State and Prospects of Science Development if the Republic of Belarus  upon the results of the year 2012. Analytical report. State Committee on Science and Technology, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, 2013.

The share of researchers with academic degrees - candidates of sciences (equivalent to PhD in the qualification system used in the USSR), and also doctors of science - in the total number of researchers is 19.6%. The highest quantity of research staff of higher qualification is engaged in natural sciences and also in engineering and technology, while the largest share of highly qualified researchers is typical for humanities (54%), medicine (40%) and agriculture (39.5%).

Distribution of R&D staff within the country is irregular: despite some decrease of the number of R&D personnel in Minsk City in 2006-2010, the majority of researchers - 76% - is still concentrated in the capital, followed by Minsk region and Gomel region. Re-allocation of research personnel is costly and strongly depends on availability of research infrastructure and overall economic situation which in the last years was not conducive for re-allocation programs.

In Belarus, the share of gross expenditures on R&D in GDP remained stable at around 0.6-0.7% of GDP in the period 2001-2012. By 2010, it had to reach 1.2-1.4% GDP in accordance to the Government plans. However this hasn’t been achieved. Nevertheless, in 2001-2008, Belarus GDP rose very rapidly, so the stability of these shares was consistent with rapid increases in the amount of funding in nominal terms. Later, the financial crisis of 2010-2011 has worsened the financial situation in science and technology.

Within the last decade, government funding has remained roughly unchanged at around 0.30% of GDP and reached 43.6% of the total expenditures for R&D in 2012. Among the non-budget sources the following key ones could be mentioned: own funds of companies and organisations which carry out R&D – 26.6%, foreign sources – 9.5% and sources of the other organisations – 19.8%. 

The distribution of funds between basic research, applied research and development is appr. 1.0 : 2.6 : 3.4. Since 2005, the share of basic research funding in the total R&D expenditures has decreased from 20,4% to 14.4%. In contrast, the share of applied research funding has grown up. 

The structure of the Belarusian R&D system by discipline is strongly dominated by technical sciences. This predominant position concerns most of the sources of funding. 78% of all R&D organisations in industry are in the machine-building sector, where own funds (61%) are larger than budgetary funds (36%) as a source of financing (2010). This strong specialisation is an asset to exploit, provided that it generates increasing returns through clusters, spillovers and knowledge exchange. Despite numerous efforts are undertaken by the government to promote other disciplines that is reflected in the list of priorities, e.g. life sciences and biotechnologies which are increasingly important on a global scale, they are relatively poorly represented so far.

The STI results of Belarus are reflected in several international ratings (Human Development Index, Legatum Prosperity Index, Bloomberg Innovation Index, 2013):

Research performers

In 2012, research was carried out in 530 organisations of which most were state owned. The attempts of the Government to re-organise the national science and technology area, optimize its structure and create conditions for increasing the effectiveness of R&D have resulted in a significant increase of the total number of R&D organisations and, in particular, those in business enterprise sector.

Organisations engaged in research and development, by sector of performance:

Source: Science and Innovation Activities. Statistical book. National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus. 2013.

Despite this positive trend, business enterprise sector has not become the major R&D performer so far, in contrast to what is typical in market economies: the NAS remains the key research player in the country. However, the R&D system is, in principle, largely oriented towards enterprises. It could be characterised as a system of R&D for, but not in the industry. According to the experts’ opinion, this feature of the Belarusian system has remained its strong characteristic.

Under the umbrella of the NAS which organisational structure and functions differ greatly from those of a traditional academy of sciences over 8o institutions are united with 18 thousand staff including 5.9 thousands researchers. Of them 482 are doctors and 1822 candidates of sciences, 247 professors and 506 associate professors. Besides R&D centres, the list of NAS’s institutions includes some manufacturing companies and several science & production ones. Another Belarus peculiarity is that the NAS is not only a leading R&D performer but it also coordinates basic and applied research, as well as appropriate state programmes within the whole country being their owner and thus partly playing the role of a ministry (agency).

Involvement of universities in R&D activities is relatively low. They represented 20% of organisations carried out R&D in 2012 and were responsible for 10% of the total expenditures for R&D. The leading role belongs to Belarusian State University, the largest classic university in Belarus, as well as to the National Technical University, the largest technical higher school.

Research funding system

The budget for research and innovation activities within the state budget, including the budget for international S&T cooperation is formed by the State Committee on Science and Technology (SCST) in close cooperation with the NAS and branch ministries. It’s is approved by the President. The SCST monitors and controls the end use of budget funds.

In 2012, the R&D expenditures totaled 330 mln. EUR, or 0.67% GDP. The budget expenditures were at the level of 46% of the total ones.

The structure of budget expenditures which is quite stable in the last 5 years shows that R&D carried out within the national programs of different types (39.3%) and basic and applied research (32.5%) consume together 72% of the total budget expenditures for STI while innovation projects funded by the Belarusian Innovation Fund get only 1.8%. The other essential budget lines are the material base (7.4%), S&T information (4.6%) and international S&T cooperation (3.6%).

Structure of budget expenditures for science, technology and innovation:

Source: On State and Prospects of Science Development in the Republic of Belarus upon the results of the year 2012. Analytical report. State Committee on Science and Technology, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, 2013.

For 2014, according to the Law № 95-З of 31 December 2023 “On the republican budget for 2014”,  the budget expenditures for research, technology and innovation (RTI) are planned of 2 118.8 bln. BYR that was equal to 161.4 mln EUR at exchange rate of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus for 1 January 2014.

More statistics on RTI activities in Belarus are available in the Statistical book “Science and Innovation Activities” for 2012 issued by the National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus in 2013 in the Section “Publications and Analytic Reports” at Belarus National Science Portal: www.scienceportal.org.by.