I have decided to make a quick analysis of R&D in Kazakhstan because I think it is going to be more interesting for you. I think you all have an idea what's going in Spain or Navarre :).
We start with GDP of Kazakhstan to correlate it with R&D later. In 2013 Kazakhstan was on 45 place in the world with GDP 203 USD billions. It's almost 7 times less than GDP of Spain. But for a country with 16 millions of people it is not so bad.
What is up with the spending on R&D? Here the situation is even worse...
So, maybe not only GDP counts, also the percentage is important... By the way, you can notice the decrease in GDP and spending in 2009, which was caused by economic crisis in 2008.
Now we know how it is with money. I think that spending on R&D for whole country is less than for Navarre only. Yeah, the absolute value is increasing, but still is very small.
If you don't have money you don't have researchers. The next graph demonstrates that.
We start with GDP of Kazakhstan to correlate it with R&D later. In 2013 Kazakhstan was on 45 place in the world with GDP 203 USD billions. It's almost 7 times less than GDP of Spain. But for a country with 16 millions of people it is not so bad.
Now we know how it is with money. I think that spending on R&D for whole country is less than for Navarre only. Yeah, the absolute value is increasing, but still is very small.
If you don't have money you don't have researchers. The next graph demonstrates that.
Actually, it is not that awful. There are 1200 researchers per 1 million. When in Spain and Russia approximately 3000 researchers. So, I respect these people. With much less money they continue to work. But can we call it R&D? I don't think so. Without equipment, facilities and money to collaborate with others there is no research. And number of publications shows explicitly...
Only 725 papers in 2012. It's like nothing comparing with USA. Some optimists would say: "You have increasing number of papers..." maybe. But it's still almost zero - 0.02% of total papers in the world.
What is the main problem? I think there are many reasons for that. First of all, it is a poor financing. It is impossible to obtain results without money. Second, I would say the quality of level index, which is worse than in prosperous countries. So many researchers are just working in another countries, where they have money to investigate and live. Next problem, very important one is how the government treats researchers, how stimulates them. Now it is not enough that you are smart and willing to work. You have to honey people above. So a lot of your energy goes to that. Even better if you have some siblings in the government. You don't have to work then...
In 1994 the program "Bolashak" has started, which gives grants to talented students to study abroad. Most of them are winners of international Olympiads in physics, mathematics, chemistry and etc. More than 10000 grantees have received degrees, some of them in Universities like Oxford, Harvard, Stanford, MIT. But what happened to them when they had to return? They didn't know where they can work! The government proposed them jobs, which don't even require a degree! How they supposed to work in low paying job? Of course many of them decided to do not return.
What is the conclusion? Not only GDP is important. The government has to create an environment for researchers. Or they will find another place...
I won't talk about Russia, also former Soviet union country, which also has a catastrophic situation with a science. But I hope it will change soon.
