The "Scientists' Financial Reward Project", which has been implemented since 2024 and serves to stimulate the scientific activity of researchers, will continue in 2026.
The press service of the Ministry of Science and Education informed Modern.az about this.
It was noted that this year the evaluation mechanism for the project has been improved in cooperation with the specialists of the international company "Clarivate", specialized in the field of scientometrics, and the Intellectual Property Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
The updated rules have been approved by the Council for Coordination of Scientific Research of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
According to the improved mechanism, up to 500 researchers working in scientific institutions under the Ministry of Science and Education are expected to be rewarded with an amount of up to 1000 manats every month.
According to the new rules, the number of scientists to be rewarded has been increased, and at the same time, the evaluation criteria have been expanded. Thus, in addition to Q1 and Q2 category journals indexed in the "Web of Science Core Collection" database, scientific articles published in Q3 and Q4 category journals will also be included in the evaluation.
In addition, for the first time, patents and utility models have been added as bonus points to the calculation mechanism in order to encourage the transfer of scientific results to the real sector.
For comparison, it should be noted that up to 150 scientists benefited from financial rewards in the first year of the project, and up to 300 in 2025.
The application of the improved rules will begin in May 2026.
The main goal of the project is to increase the result-orientation of scientific activity, to encourage the activity of researchers in international scientific databases and to support the practical application of the obtained scientific results.
