Speaking at a briefing summing up a government session on the Russian science modernization program, Andrei Fursenko said, some institutes and researchers applied knowledge in practice.
"We believe they can raise wages of their employees thanks to industrial contracts. Budget funds should be spent on supporting scientists doing fundamental research," Fursenko said.
Speaking at a government session earlier, Fursenko said experienced researchers' salaries should be raised to 30,000 rubles ($1,050), and to 15-20,000 rubles ($550-700) for young specialists.
When asked about possible grants for fundamental research, the minister said Russia had funds that distributed 6% of the allocations for civil science on a competitive basis.
Fursenko said that the grants were not very substantial, with most of them channeled to applied sciences. Institutes conducting fundamental research should retain fundamental funding.
In 2005, budget appropriations on fundamental research aggregate 30 billion rubles ($1 billion), which is 24.5% more than in 2004.
