The “Scientists’ Financial Reward Project,” which has been implemented since 2024 and serves to stimulate the scientific activities of researchers, will continue in 2026.
This was reported to elchi by the Ministry of Science and Education.
It was stated that the evaluation mechanism for the project in the current year has been improved in cooperation with specialists from “Clarivate,” an international company specializing in scientometrics, and the Intellectual Property Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The updated rules have been approved by the Scientific Research Coordination Council of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
According to the improved mechanism, it is planned to reward up to 500 researchers working in scientific institutions under the Ministry of Science and Education with a monthly amount of up to 1000 AZN.
Under the new rules, the number of researchers to be rewarded has been increased, and 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 papers published in Q3 and Q4 category journals have also been included in the evaluation. Furthermore, to encourage the transfer of research results to the real sector, patents and utility models have been added to the calculation mechanism as bonus points for the first time.
For comparison, it should be noted that about 150 scientists benefited from this opportunity in the first year of the project, and about 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 activities, encourage the activity of researchers in international scientific databases, and support the practical application of scientific results.