The scientific potential of Kyrgyzstan is concentrated in 92 independent scientific and technical institutions, organizations, enterprises, higher educational institutions, scientific and production centers, and temporary creative collectives.
The main components of the scientific sphere are the scientific institutions of the National Academy of Sciences and the institutions funded and coordinated by the State Agency for Science and Intellectual Property under the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic, where 27 and 59 scientific institutions are respectively concentrated.
For comparison: at the beginning of 2000, Russia invested 1% of GDP in science, Ukraine — 1.15%, Belarus — 0.8%, Turkmenistan — 0.5%, Armenia and Azerbaijan — 0.4% each. At the level of Kyrgyzstan, only Tajikistan invested in science (0.1% of GDP).
For the first time, the 1999 census included a question about individuals with academic degrees. According to its results, 2,473 candidates of sciences and 423 doctors of sciences were recorded, of which 2,366, or 82%, are employed. Of the total number of candidates and doctors of sciences, the majority (60%) are employed in education and healthcare, just over one-fifth are in public administration and real estate operations.
The number of people employed in the field of science is declining every year. This trend from 1990 to 2001 is shown in Table 2.19. Compared to 1990, the number of people employed in science has decreased by 5.4 times, with the reduction primarily occurring among specialists in sectoral sciences. Factors contributing to the decline in the number of specialists include migration and the transition of specialists to private and other structures where salaries are higher.
The scientific and technical complex traditionally represents one of the most important objects of the country's economy and cannot fully exist and develop without state support.
At the Republican meeting (October 15, 2005), the President of the Kyrgyz Republic, K. S. Bakiyev, formulated priority tasks for 2005-2006 for economic growth. The revival of industry should become the locomotive of this growth. Several developments by Kyrgyz scientists have been implemented in the country's enterprises. Hydraulic hammers of the "Impulse" type are used in the construction and reconstruction of the Bishkek - Osh road. Modern measuring and information systems and monitoring devices for landslide processes are used in the area of the city of Mailuu-Suu for monitoring the mountain slopes of the Toktogul hydroelectric complex. Engineering-geological and geomechanical components of the feasibility study for the planned railway route China — Kyrgyzstan — Uzbekistan formed the basis of an intergovernmental agreement (Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, China).
The technology for processing solid agricultural waste to obtain biogas and plant growth stimulators, biofertilizers, and the production of biogas installations has already been implemented at OJSC "Fakel". They are used in the farms of Chui and Jalal-Abad regions. New high-yield varieties of apple and plum trees created in the Botanical Garden have been included in the State Register of varieties and hybrids of plants permitted for use in the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic. Liquid iodized salt "Antizob," medical physiological solutions from local salt, and vaccines for treating infectious diseases in agricultural animals are produced at the experimental base of the Biotechnology Institute of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) of the Kyrgyz Republic. Medicinal preparations based on walnuts for veterinary and medical use are produced at the scientific and production center "Kyrgyz-jangak."
Kyrgyz plasma technologies for restoring and strengthening machine and mechanism parts are used in Russia, Ukraine, Malaysia, and France; non-explosive mining technologies are used in Kazakhstan, and technologies for using unconventional energy sources are used in Mongolia. At KHMZ-Astra (the town of Orlovka), the production of crucibles made of reinforced silicon nitride ceramics for growing monocrystalline silicon and abrasive tools based on synthetic diamonds has been mastered. Resource-saving technologies for extracting antimony and arsenic from ore waste have been implemented at the Kadamjai antimony-mercury plant. At the drill factory (Bishkek), the technology for plasma hardening of drill cutting edges has been mastered. At marble deposits (in particular, in Osh and Jalal-Abad regions), granite and wollastonite deposits (Jalal-Abad region, Kemin district of Chui region) mining and stone-cutting machines and aggregates with a gentle mode of block extraction and construction materials are used.
The main task of the academic sector of science is to ensure a high level of fundamental research to acquire new knowledge, as well as to develop priority areas of science for Kyrgyzstan. The NAS is the only scientific center in the republic and in the world that conducts comprehensive fundamental research in the fields of history, language, folklore, literature, and public thought of the Kyrgyz people.
The free market strategy requires the state to withdraw from most services in the organization of education and research, except for national security issues. Structural changes need to be made to transfer educational and research services entirely to private entities, where consumers can purchase everything they need for direct payment.
However, this does not mean a reduction in the role of the state in the field of science and education. The state establishes modified frameworks of responsibility, transfers management to the public space of public policy, and establishes corporate ties, alliances, and relationships between universities on educational reform issues.
But this is only one way to implement the free market strategy. There is another direction. The private sector is increasing the pace of financing innovative activities in the country.
The state budget allocated 15.1 million soms for technological innovations, or 2% of total expenditures, while 98% of investments come from the private sector. The peculiarity is that this includes the stage of innovation implementation. The research and development stage is usually funded by the state and funds.
The development of state scientific and technical policy includes:
• Improving the legislative and regulatory framework for science, adapted to modern economic conditions; developing standardized methods for the expertise of scientific research, assessing their quality, creating indicators of effectiveness and demand for research results;
• Optimizing the network of research institutions with a focus on priorities in the development of the Kyrgyz Republic; creating economic and social conditions for training scientific personnel, enhancing the prestige of scientific work, the demand for research results, and attracting youth to the scientific field;
• Improving the mechanism for financial support of science and its rational use;
• Developing information and organizational support for scientific and technical activities;
• Strengthening the scientific and technical potential of the regions of the republic with a focus on developing local economic priorities;
• Developing innovative activities, creating conditions for integrating scientific developments into economic turnover, forming a market for scientific products harmonized with global and regional practices;
• Expanding international scientific and technical cooperation, creating conditions for Kyrgyzstan's full participation in integration processes in the field of science and scientific-innovative activities.
The concentration of scientific personnel in the education system and the ongoing outflow of scientists to other fields shift the center of scientific thought to higher educational institutions and naturally contribute to the integration of education and science. The majority of the country's scientific personnel are concentrated in higher educational institutions. Thus, in 2005, most doctors of sciences worked in the country's universities. The training of graduate students and doctoral students also predominantly takes place in higher educational institutions: in 2004, 83.6% of graduate students studied in universities and only 16.4% in research institutions.
The state stimulates and supports the creation of scientific and educational complexes by universities and scientific institutions in the republic, such as the Institute of Fundamental Sciences at the Kyrgyz National University and the Institute of Physical and Technical Problems at the Kyrgyz Technical University.
Research institutes with preserved scientific and innovative potential are being transformed into state scientific and technical centers (SSTC), responsible for scientific and technical policy in several relevant areas. Separate SSTCs are being created based on academic institutions of the National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic.
Some scientific and design-technical organizations are being transformed into innovation centers and technoparks, including through the transfer of premises and equipment to entrepreneurs, banks, and other investors under long-term lease (leasing) conditions.
Public professional associations and unions are widespread in Kyrgyzstan. The Union of Architects, the Union of Writers, the Union of Journalists, the Union of Cinematographers, the Union of Composers, the Union of Music Workers, the Union of Artists, the Union of Hunting and Fishing Societies, the Society of Beekeepers, the Society "Knowledge," the Society of the Blind and Deaf, the Defense Sports and Technical Organization, the Volunteer Fire Society, the Organization of War, Labor, Armed Forces, and Law Enforcement Veterans, the Union of Vehicle Drivers, the National Society of the Red Crescent (NSRC), the Union of Kyrgyz Societies of Friendship and Cooperation with Foreign Countries.