Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) - During the meeting of the board of the Ministry of Innovative Development, which took place on 1 May, information was presented on the current state of international competitions of scientific and technical projects of the Ministry of Innovative Development.

The Uzbek-Chinese joint competition of scientific and technical projects was announced on 17 September 2019 in accordance with the protocol of the Fourth meeting of the Uzbek-Chinese intergovernmental joint commission on science and technology of 24 July 2019. Applications for the competition were accepted until 27 November, a total of 61 projects were submitted, 55 of them received a positive opinion from the technical expert examination and on 21 January 2020 were submitted to the Scientific and Technical Councils under the Ministry for scientific and technical examination in the established manner.

In accordance with the agreement, projects will be agreed with the Ministry of Science and Technology of the PRC, financing of the top 20 joint scientific and technical projects will be carried out in the second half of this year.

The Uzbek-Turkish joint competition of scientific and technical projects was announced on 28 September 2019 in accordance with the protocol signed on 30 April 2018 between the Ministry of Innovative Development of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Council for Scientific and Technical Research of the Republic of Turkey (TUBITAK). 39 projects were submitted to the competition, 37 of them received a positive opinion of the technical expertise and on 21 January 2020 were submitted to the Scientific and Technical Councils under the Ministry.

According to the agreement with TUBITAK, in April 2020, a decision was made to exchange experiences, agree on projects to be financed in May, and start financing joint scientific and technical projects in the second half of 2020.

On 14 November  2019, a joint interdisciplinary scientific and technical project with the Eurasian Association for the Support of Scientific Research (EAPI) was announced on the basis of an application from the Ministry of Innovative Development for membership in the EAPI. Documents for the competition were accepted until 15 January 2020. All 38 projects submitted for the competition received a positive assessment of the technical expertise and on 31 January 2020 were submitted to the Scientific and Technical Councils under the Ministry for conducting scientific and technical expertise in the prescribed manner.

According to the agreement with the EAPI, an agreement was reached on the exchange of experience and coordination of project financing in June of this year, and in the second half of 2020 financing of multilateral scientific and technical projects will begin.

The competition of joint Uzbek-Indian scientific and technical projects was announced in accordance with a number of agreements between the Ministry of Innovative Development of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Ministry of Science and Technology of India on 15 November 2019. All 137 projects received a positive conclusion of technical expertise and on 10 March were transferred to the Scientific and Technical Councils under the Ministry.

In accordance with the agreement with the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of India, an agreement was reached on the exchange of experience and coordination of funded projects in May of this year, and from the second half of the year to start financing multilateral scientific and technical projects.

Financing of 17 Uzbek-Russian scientific and technical projects jointly financed by the Ministry of Innovative Development of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) was completed on 1 January 2020 due to the expiration of the project.

This year it is planned to announce a competition for new joint scientific and technical projects with the Russian Foundation for Basic Research. So far, the terms of the new competition, directions, the number of funded projects and the amount of financing with the Russian Federal Property Fund have been agreed. The fund expressed its readiness to announce a competition of joint scientific and technical projects after signing a package of documents.

In addition, a draft agreement was developed between the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan and the Ministry of Innovative Development on a competition of scientific and technical projects for 2020–2022. Work is underway to announce a joint competition.

The agreed deadlines are subject to change due to the coronavirus and quarantine pandemic.