Comparing National Academies of Sciences in Central and Eastern Europe: Current State and Perspectives for the Development of the National Academy of Sciences, Ukraine

Abstract

From a historical point of view, the National Academy in the USSR was created as a scientific institution from the end of the 1920s to the early 1930s. The goal was to collect “social aliens” and use their work for the needs of the “Proletarian (Communist) State”. The Ukraine Government stabilized the structure of scientific institutions, with scientific researchers and those in higher education working separately. The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine is most powerful of all National Academies in the country. Therefore, this Academy is described in detail. All financing for scientific research from the state budget is directed to the Academy. The Academy could be considered as a “bad” (or “predatory”, following Acemoglu’s classification) institution in Ukraine, operating like a “feudalist” system. The non-member researchers can be described as the “serfs” or “vassals”. This is illustrated by an occurrence described by Striha (2015): at a meeting of the General Assembly following the election of Boris Paton as Academy President, over which Striha notes he presided in the Soviet style, “one of the academicians burst out earnestly from the podium: “Paton is a god! To vote against him is to vote against God!” We find this anecdote a disturbingly accurate description. In the future, the Academy can choose from three paths for development. First, the Academy can maintain its present state as a “bad” or “predatory” institution. Result: government institutions must kill off any “predatory” institution in the country and the Academy will die. Second, the Academy can work in cooperation with foreign grants. That is, the Academy will be integrated with R&D institutions in foreign countries. Result: the Academy will transition to a state such as that of business firms and the government will start to collect taxes from the Academy. Third, the Academy can transition to the development of R&D institutions in Ukraine. Of these, only the third option is attractive as only in this way can the Academy be maintained as a domestic institution.