Academician Valeriu Canter, who applied for the post of president of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, will insist on raising the salaries of researchers and on providing salary bonuses for achieving good results, IPN reports.

In a news conference held to present the program and strategy for developing the Academy of Sciences, Valeriu Canter said that one of his priorities, if he is elected as president, will be to convince the authorities that the pays of young researchers must be equal at least to a minimum salary so that they are motivated to do research. About 150 million lei a year will be needed for paying salaries to approximately 3,000 researchers. The money can be allocated from the 400 million lei earmarked by the state for research, if particular bureaucratic costs are cut.

The academician also aims to work out a new regulatory research framework by summer and to set the priority research areas so as to ask for additional financing.

Valeriu Canter said that 95% of the money intended for research projects is provided by institutional ways and only 5% by contest. This last figure must be at least 30%. There must also exist education doctorate and research doctorate, while the scholarships for them should be over 3,000 lei. There will be instituted the post of president of the Academy’s Assembly that will be occupied by another person than the Academy’s president.

Four candidates have applied for the post of president of the Academy of Sciences. The other three candidates are the ex-president of the Academy Gheorghe Duca, Valeriu Pasat and Leonid Culiuc. The president will be elected in the Academy’s Assembly on April 17. The Assembly is the supreme managing body that includes titular and correspondent members and 78 doctors habilitate elected for a four-year period.