113
NATIONAL AND REGIONAL PROCESSES IN EDUCATION AND SCIENCE
ing to a total of 278.6 million leva. Projects
for the purchasing or leasing of apparatus,
equipment, licences and know-how were
financed in 1994 via the Fund for Struc-
tural and Technological Policy to the
amount of 110 million leva.
The absence of significant market de-
mand for scientific services has had a le-
thal effect on the research institutions of
the company sector. The Ministry of In-
dustry undertakes the elimination of the
juridical independence of the research and
development units and their incorporation
in the composition of the enterprises, which
secure between 80 and 100 per cent of the
contracts.
So far in Bulgaria there is no practice
of foreign countries investing in science.
According to statistics of the Agency for
Foreign Investments, in 1995 not a single
company with foreign participation in-
vested capital in products of the scientific
and technological activity.
An indicator of the rather limited fi-
nancial base of scientific and technologi-
cal research is the share of the funds for
salaries and insurance in the total expen-
ditures of the two biggest scientific institu-
tions in 1994. At the BAS they amount to
55.9% of the overall expenditures and at
the AAS - to 44.6%. The salaries them-
selves are a discouraging factor. The aver-
age annual salary in the sector of Science
and Scientific Services tends to decrease.
In 1989 it was 1.13 times the average an-
nual salary in the country, and in 1993 -
0.99 times.
An enduring trend has taken shape
during the past 10 years of a decrease of
the share of
funds for capital investments
in the overall expenditures associated with
research. The lowest acceptable value of
this indicator is 10-12% of the spendings
on research. In 1989 that share was 10.5%,
and in 1993 - 3.2%. In 1994 that share in
the spendings of the BAS and the AAS had
symbolic values - 1.6%.
Against the background of the finan-
cial scarcity, the grave problems in the ma-
terial and technical infrastructure of Bulgar-
ian science are not surprising. According
to the results of a study conducted at the
end of 1992, only one-fifth of the comput-
ers and barely 29% of the unique research
apparatus were less than 3 years old. With
the drastic curtailment of funds, the tech-
nological standards of Bulgarian science
have further deteriorated. Statistics of the
same study also point to the deterioration
of the stock of buildings. At the end of 1992,
nearly half of the buildings needed current
repairs and between 20 and 25% capital
repairs. The
share of buildings which will
soon be absolutely impossible to use is
growing.
The restitution of land ownership and
of large-scale urban ownership creates
problems and tensions in the work of a
number of scientific units. Confronted with
such problems are the AAS as well as units
of the BAS and some higher educational
establishments.
9.5. The scientific personnel
During the 30-year period up until
1989, those employed in the sector of Sci-
ence and Scientific Servicing increased in
number at priority rates in comparison with
Employment in the sector of science and scientific servicing
Years
1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995
Total number
of employed
97388 90918 67418 52571 36442 31568 30287
Research workers
31611 31704 29060 26598 26284 25696 24848
Post-graduate students
- Bulgarian citizens
trained in Bulgaria
and abroad
3454
5153
4811
2965
2215
1393
1326
Of them regular
students
2055
2286
2272
1425
926
439
440
Table 9.6.
The spending on
science is mainly the
spending on salaries
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT ! BULGARIA 1996
114
the other sectors, reaching 97388, or 2.4%
of those employed in the country. At the
end of 1994 employment in science was
32.4% of that of 1989.
From 1980 to 1989 the number of re-
search workers increased by 40%, whereas
their number at the end of 1994 had
dropped by 20% as compared with 1989.
Since 1989, substantial differences in the
number of research workers have also been
noticed between the individual scientific
spheres. The downward trend has been
most predominant in the technical and ag-
ricultural sciences.
There are differences in the qualifica-
tion structures of the scientists from the
various fields of science. In the sphere of
the medical sciences the share of scientists
without scientific degree is 76.1%, whereas
in the field of the agricultural sciences that
share is 59%, and of the technical sciences
- 64.4%. In the natural and agricultural
sciences more than half of the researchers
have a scientific degree of Dr. and Dr.sc.
That percentage is from around 36.9% in
the medical sciences to 48.0% in the social
sciences.
These differences are associated with
the periodical shift of priorities during the
past decades in the field of the scientific
and technological research, as well as in
the sphere of higher education. The great
stress laid in the state policy on some
spheres of science or on the training of
university graduates in certain disciplines
encouraged the inflow of new researchers
and lecturers among the talented young
people and stimulated their growth in the
scientific hierarchy.
The nature of the re-
search also exerts an influence on the quali-
fications structure. Most of the research
workers, employed in the sphere of com-
pany science, deal with applied research
and developments. The results obtained by
them give smaller opportunities to their
authors to get scientific degrees, because
they are more difficult to fit into the crite-
ria specified for a contribution to science.
These criteria give priority to pure science.
Indicative in this respect is a compari-
son of the qualification levels of the scien-
tists of the different sectors. The share of
scientists with a scientific degree in the state
sector is 61.6%, while in the sector of higher
education it is 41.0%
and in the sector of
the enterprises - 19.8%. These statistics
come to show the different weight that the
system of scientific degrees and titles has
for the professional reproduction of differ-
ent sectors of Bulgarian science. This
makes it imperative to look for alternative
approaches and systems for the profes-
sional growth of scientists at the different
types of research and technological insti-
tutions. The mechanisms of promotion of
researchers, engaged in various types of
research also need reassessment.
Of major importance for the profes-
sional growth and for the productivity of
the science is the ratio between researchers
and technical and auxiliary staff. At the end
of 1994, the ratio was 0.73 of technical and
auxiliary staff per one researcher. This ra-
tio is indicative of the disproportions in the
national research and technology spheres.
Broken down in sectors, the ratio varies
from 1:1.2 in the sector of company sci-
ence to 1:0.45 in higher education. Both
on the national level and in the individual
institutions these ratios have been the re-
sult of the break-down of the personnel in
Bulgarian science. The strongest ebb for
reasons of the lower pay occurred among
Table 9.7.
Researchers by fields of science
Fields of science
1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995
Natural sciences
5351
5459
5272
5135
5227
5151
5050
Technical sciences
12799 12905 10541
9339
8583
7743
7125
Medical sciences
4573
4573
4917
4914
4796
4802
4802
Agricultural sciences
2310
2089
1930
1662
1632
1649
1633
Social sciences
6578
6678
6400
5548
6046
6271
6238
TOTAL
31611 31704 29060 26598 26284 25616 24848