Regulatory and legal support for the protection of the rights of young scientists in the context of integration development of Ukraine
Authors: Ogiyenko Inna 
Published: July 2024

Problem setting. The challenges of recent years, which our country has directly faced and the consequences of which will be acutely felt for years to come, give every reason to believe that there is an urgent need to transform the state’s approaches to scientific activity and its foundation scientific personnel. Our state needs to develop high-quality strategies and plans for the country’s recovery after the war, and the involvement of young scientists should become a strategic resource for the development and recovery of our country. For its part, the state should demonstrate its interest in attracting young people to the scientific community, understanding the importance of scientific achievements for economic development and ensuring national security. Constantly underfunding science only leads to the loss of highly qualified scientific personnel and the inability to restore the talent pool at a sufficient level by attracting young people. Purpose of the research is to research of legal support for the protection of the rights of young scientists in research infrastructures and aims to deepen understanding of the problem and develop recommendations for improving the protec-tion of rights and developing ways to stimulate scientific personnel in order to address the problems of outflow of scientific personnel both abroad and in other areas of activity. Analysis of resent researches and publications. A significant number of scholars have addressed the issues of support for researchers, the problems of the outflow of scientific personnel, and decent remuneration for researchers in their scientific works. Recently, these issues have been covered by N. Vapnyarchuk, O. Holovashchenko, S. Yaroshenko and others. Article’s main body. The article is devoted to the study of the main problems of young scientists and legal support for the protection of their rights in research infrastructures in Ukraine and Europe. The author structures the existing means and methods of protection and support of young scientists in our country and compares them with the support measures successfully applied in European countries. In our country, a system of state support measures for young scientists has been formed and is in place, which can be conditionally classified according to the following criteria: Financial support measures: this group includes the payment of scholarships, the provision and financing of grants, awards, etc. Professional support measures, which include the creation of councils of young scientists, holding various competitions, such as the All-Ukrainian competition “Young Scientist of the Year”, competitions of scientific papers, the creation of a support office for scientists and their regional centers, and the establishment of the “Mentor School” project. Social support measures, where the main problem for a long time has been the issue of providing scientists, including young ones, with housing, which has long been addressed in various ways, but due to the constant lack of funding, all measures are not systematic and this problem remains unsolved. If we compare the problems faced by young scientists in Ukraine and in European countries, they partially coincide, because among the main problems young researchers in Europe also mentioned employment, especially in permanent positions, as the lack of stable and predictable career prospects can have a discouraging effect on young researchers and often young researchers were particularly vulnerable to staff reductions due to reduced research funding or company downsizing, and the conditions of remuneration were also of great importance. It is concluded that the measures to protect young scientists which already exist in the country, provided that they are sufficiently funded, should partially prevent the process of scientific personnel turnover, but due to constant underfunding, lack of systematicity and orderliness, the question of their effectiveness arises. It is noted that the experience of European countries allows us to conclude that there is a certain variation in the means by which there are opportunities to encourage young people to devote their professional activities to science. The author suggests ways to solve the existing problems, among which the need to develop comprehensive programs of measures that will include incentives and encouraging measures of an organizational, financial, legal, and social nature, the purpose of which should be to minimize the loss of the existing human resources of Ukrainian science and to offer certain competitive advantages to attract young scientists and researchers. Conclusions and prospects for the development. The situation in the country, the ongoing full-scale invasion by the russian federation, the loss of educational and research infrastructure, the lack of funds and the redistribution of available funds to finance priority military needs all lead to a deepening of the crisis in the scientific sphere. Preserving the country’s scientific potential should become one of the state’s priority goals, since in the absence of sufficient funding, all existing measures to protect the rights of young scientists will remain unimplemented, especially during the war. Some of the existing measures, if sufficiently funded, could help prevent the turnover of scientific personnel, but they are insufficient, especially given the ambitious ideas for post-war development of the country and the need to support and develop innovations and the scientific and technological potential of the state. The experience of European countries allows us to conclude that there is a certain variation in the means by which young people can be encouraged to devote their professional activities to science. Among other things, financial incentives play a major role both in Ukraine and in the European Union. The issue of preserving the scientific personnel potential, which has always been quite acute during Ukraine’s independence, has become even more urgent during the full-scale invasion and requires the development of comprehensive measures that will include incentives of an organizational, financial, legal, and social nature that, first, minimize the loss of the existing human resources of Ukrainian science, and, second, will be able to offer competitive advantages for attracting young scientists and researchers.