Science and technology in Armenia

[2] Armenia has a number of assets, including a strong science base, a large Armenian diaspora and traditional national values that emphasize education and skills.

The Gituzh initiative outlined an intent to push for an official state order by the government to support research and development, which at the time it lacked, with half of the 2021 allocated budget for defence R&D in 2021 used for unknown purposes.

[4] Armenia is a member of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), along with Albania, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, the Russian Federation, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.

This organization was founded in 1992, shortly after the disintegration of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, in order to develop prosperity and security within the region.

[1] BSEC's Third Action Plan on Science and Technology 2014–2018 acknowledges that considerable effort has been devoted to setting up a Black Sea Research Programme involving both BSEC and European Union members but also that, 'in a period of scarce public funding, the research projects the Project Development Fund could support will decrease and, as a result, its impact will be limited'.

ISTIC was established in 1992 by the European Union, Japan, the Russian Federation and the USA to engage weapons scientists in civilian research projects and to foster technology transfer.

As co-operation among the member states in science and technology is already considerable, the Eurasian Economic Union is expected to have a limited impact on co-operation among public laboratories or academia but it may encourage research links among businesses and scientific mobility, since it includes provision for the free circulation of labour and unified patent regulations.

[1] In 2007, the government made a key policy decision by adopting a resolution establishing the State Committee of Science (SCS).

These priorities were:[1] The Law on the National Academy of Sciences (May 2011) is also expected to play a key role in shaping the Armenian innovation system.

In this context, the State Committee of Science invites private sector participation on a co-financing basis in research projects targeting applied results.

More than 20 projects have been funded in so-called targeted branches: pharmaceuticals, medicine and biotechnology, agricultural mechanization and machine building, electronics, engineering, chemistry and, particularly, the sphere of information technology.

The Armenian information technology sector has been particularly active: a number of public–private partnerships have been established between companies and universities, such as Synopsys Inc. and the Enterprise Incubator Foundation.

The chair, now part of the global Synopsys University Programme, supplies Armenia with microchip and electronic design automation specialists.

The Enterprise Incubator Foundation (EIF) was founded jointly in 2002 by the government and the World Bank and is connected with Armenia’s information technology (IT) sector, dealing with legal and business issues, educational reform, investment promotion and start-up funding, services and consultancy for IT companies, talent identification and workforce development.

It has implemented various projects in Armenia with international companies such as Microsoft, Cisco Systems, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett Packard and Intel.

In parallel, the Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Programme helps technical specialists bring products to market and create new ventures, as well as encouraging partnerships with established companies.

Gross domestic expenditure on research and development is low in Armenia, averaging 0.25% of GDP over 2010–2013, with little annual variation observed in recent years.

This ratio has remained stable for the past few years, even though, in absolute terms, research expenditure was 20% higher (AMD 14.3 billion, or ca US$ 29.9 million) in 2018 than in 2014.

[1][7] Armenia ranks 60th out of 122 countries for education – lagging somewhat behind Belarus and Ukraine but ahead of Azerbaijan and Georgia[9] Armenia ranks better for tertiary enrollment (44th out of 122 countries), with 25% of the workforce possessing tertiary education (see table below).Women make up one-third of PhD graduates (see table below).

Armenia performs poorly, though, in the workforce and employment index (113th out of 122 countries), primarily due to high unemployment and low levels of employee training.

The foundation runs programs supporting young talent, entrepreneurs and technological start-ups primarily specializing in data and computer science, biotechnology and advanced materials.

Six out of ten (60%) Armenian articles had one or more foreign co-authors in 2014, twice the OECD average of 29% but similar to the ratio for Belarus (58%) and less than that for either Georgia (72%) or Moldova (71%).