111
NATIONAL AND REGIONAL PROCESSES IN EDUCATION AND SCIENCE
The first sector are the state scientific
units, meeting a wide range of public needs,
including also the needs of the major state
institutions. The means for their financial
backup came mostly from the state bud-
get. Included here are the largest scientific
institutions, incorporating institutes, experi-
mental stations, laboratories and other
units. These are the Bulgarian Academy
of Sciences (BAS), the Academy of Agri-
cultural Sciences (AAS), as well as the na-
tional centres in the sphere of public health.
Referred to that sector are also the units
providing the scientific services to the min-
istries and the central departments.
The second sector includes the higher
and semi-higher educational establish-
ments, their specialized divisions for sci-
entific research, as well as the state insti-
tute hospitals.
They are financed through
their own funds and through contracts.
The third sector includes the organi-
sations, carrying out research aimed at sup-
porting the manufacture of commodities
and services for the market. Their financ-
ing is based on contracts with those order-
ing scientific and technological products.
The fourth sector encompasses insti-
tutes, foundations and other non-profit as-
sociations. They have been a new phenom-
enon emerging in the course of the past
few years. Along with their other activities,
they also engage in scientific research.
The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
(BAS) has a significant weight in the insti-
tutional structure of scientific and techno-
logical research, as there are 81 units in its
composition. The Academy of Agricultural
Sciences has 72 organisations. Thus the
academic structures focus one-third of the
total number of research organisations.
The decrease of researchers has been
most significant in the sphere of higher
education. Their share of the total number
dropped from 43.2% to 27.5%, while in
the state sector the number increased to
57.6%. These statistics are indicative of the
priority of lecturing at the structures of
higher education.
During the past few years changes
have also set in in the structures of units by
scientific spheres. Most clear-cut are the
changes in the sphere of the technical sci-
ences. More than half of their total num-
ber (56.9%) is focused on the higher edu-
cation sector. The share of company sci-
ence has sharply dropped. The research
and technological units in most of the en-
terprises have been closed down. Their
number has been reduced almost three
times. Despite the cuts, the influence of
science has to a certain extent been pre-
served in some sectors of the national
economy, which were priority sectors in the
period up until 1990. More than half of the
units of departmental science (60.2%)
have been concentrated in the scientific
servicing of the structure-determining sec-
tors. Mechanical engineering and metal
working are serviced by 22% of the com-
pany research units, electrical engineering
and the electronic industry by 15.2% of
them, the chemical
and oil-processing in-
dustry by 13.6%, and transport - by 9.3%
of them. The sharp curtailment of indus-
trial production in the 1990-1994 period
substantially affected these sectors. Some
of them turn out but one-fourth of their
1989 output. This has been the main rea-
son why the
enterprises can no longer se-
cure the finances necessary for scientific
and technological research.
Table 9.4.
Research units and researchers according to institutional
sectors (1994)
Sectors
Research units
Researchers
number percentage
number percentage
State sector
227
50.4
8177
44.2
Sector higher education
100
22.2
7998
43.2
Sector of company science
118
26.2
2298
12.4
Sector of non-profit Institutions
5
1.1
24
0.1
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT ! BULGARIA 1996
112
In the state sector and most of all in
the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences are
almost all units conducting research in the
field of the natural sciences - 93.8%. The
units carrying out research in the field of
the agricultural sciences are also exclusively
concentrated in the state sector - 96.4%
(Academy of Agricultural Sciences). This
sector has a leading role also by the num-
ber of research institutions in the sphere of
the social sciences, too - 63.4%.
The four institutional sectors have
their specificity also in view of the differ-
ent types of research, in which they engage.
In the units of the state sector the pure sci-
ence predominates - 76.8%. Applied re-
search and development are dealt with in
the organizations of the enterprises - re-
spectively 46% and 63.9%. Among the re-
search completed in 1994 by organisations
of all sectors, only 11.7% resulted in the
development of new and the improvement
of already existing technologies.
An analysis of the data concerning the
research subjects completed in 1994 indi-
cates a low degree of tie-up of scientific
and technological research in the country
with research carried out in other coun-
tries. Out of all the 4954 investigations com-
pleted, only 393, or 7.9% , were along the
lines of international scientific and tech-
nological co-operation. Barely 1.4% were
along the lines of co-operation with the Eu-
ropean Union. Similar is the share (1.2%)
of the completed new and improved tech-
nologies - 7 in number, produced along the
lines of international scientific and techni-
cal co-operation.
9.4. Financing and infrastructure
of scientific and technological
research
The trend of a long term increase of
the spendings for science was discontinued
after 1988. In the 1979-1988 period that
increase was by 2.8 times.
Since the early
1990s the share of funds earmarked for re-
search has sharply dropped in relation to
the gross domestic product (GDP).
This trend is in striking opposition to
the recommendations of the European
Union to the countries of the community
regarding the allocation of 3% of their
GDP for science. The continuation of the
trend would bring the country closer to the
states of Africa and Latin America, where
an average of 0.5% of the GDP are set
aside for scientific and technological re-
search.
The important indicator of funds al-
located for science per capita of the popu-
lation has sharply deteriorated. From 44.5
US dollars annually in 1990, this indicator
reached $10.4 in 1994. Quite a consider-
able difference can be noticed in the com-
parison with countries close to Bulgaria in
territory and population. In 1990 that indi-
cator for Belgium was $277, in Denmark -
$242, and in Austria - $236.
In countries in a situation analogous
to that of Bulgaria with limited possibili-
ties and interest of companies and other
organisations to render assistance to sci-
ence, the state is involved in its financing
with a share exceeding 50%. In Bulgaria
that share is 30-35%.
Institutional financing makes up the
predominant share of the budgetary funds
allocated to science: subsidies for the BAS,
the AAS and other units. Projects are fi-
nanced by the National Fund for Scientific
Research, by
the Fund for Structural and
Technological Policy as well as by funds
with the sector ministries. In the 1991-1994
period, the National Fund for Scientific
Research financed 2512 projects amount-
The international
scientific and
technological co-
operation is too limited
Table 9.5.
Share of the means allocated for scientific and technological
research as percentage of the GDP (1988-1994)
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
%
2.5
2.4
2.2
1.3
1.4
1.1
0.9