The Verkhovna Rada Updated the Award System: New Rules, Deadlines, and Requirements

The Verkhovna Rada adopted resolution No. 15268, which provides for the improvement of procedures for awarding parliamentary prizes and scholarships.

The decision was supported by 246 members of parliament.

The document aims to optimize the processes of issuing diplomas for prize laureates and scholarship recipients.

In particular, the changes concern the procedure for conducting public professional discussions of competition works for the Igor Yukhnovskyi Prize, as well as clarify the requirements for the preparation of relevant submissions.

As noted in the explanatory note, the document was prepared taking into account the practice of applying the current resolution and is aimed at improving the mechanisms for awarding prizes and appointing scholarships of the Verkhovna Rada.

Changes regarding the Borys Hrinchenko Prize

The project provides for fixing the prize amount at 100 thousand hryvnias. Currently, its amount is determined by the state budget law but cannot be less than 100 thousand hryvnias.

Also, for document submission, it is proposed to keep the requirement to provide a copy of the Ukrainian citizen’s passport without specifying the first and second pages of the document.

Innovations for the Pylyp Orlyk Prize

The document proposes replacing the approval of the diploma description with the approval of its sample.

It is envisaged that the Verkhovna Rada Office will produce diploma forms, carry out their preparation and accounting. It is also clarified that laureates will be solemnly presented with diplomas.

Changes to the Vasyl Sukhomlynskyi Prize

The regulation proposes replacing the wording "pedagogical workers of preschool education institutions" with a broader definition — "pedagogical workers who provide preschool education."

The list of documents is supplemented by the mandatory consent to the processing of personal data.

In addition, instead of the diploma description, its sample will be approved, and the production, preparation, and accounting of forms will be carried out by the Verkhovna Rada Office. Also, the requirement to submit copies of the first and second pages of the passport is removed from the document requirements.

What will change for the Igor Yukhnovskyi Prize

The largest volume of changes concerns the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Prize named after Igor Yukhnovskyi for young scientists.

In particular, the wording "development of domestic science and technology" is proposed to be replaced with "development of science and technology of Ukraine." The mention of exact sciences is removed from the list of fields, leaving natural, technical, social, and humanitarian sciences.

It is clarified that competition works should contribute to solving scientific and technical problems, as well as issues of Ukraine’s security and defense.

The requirements for competition works are also changing. It is envisaged that they must be published or completed no later than the year preceding the year of awarding the prize, without reference to the specific date of January 1.

Decisions of scientific councils established in accordance with the Law of Ukraine "On Higher Education" will also be taken into account.

Information about the start of the nomination procedure will be published not only by the relevant committee of the Verkhovna Rada but also by the National Research Foundation of Ukraine.

The start of public discussion of competition works is proposed to be moved from August 1 to October 1. The duration of such discussion will be reduced from six to four months.

The candidate’s document package must include a certificate from the main place of work or a document about studying in postgraduate or doctoral studies, as well as a copy of the passport. At the same time, the requirement to submit a personal record sheet is planned to be canceled.

The issue of conflict of interest is separately regulated. Members of scientific councils who have a conflict of interest with authors or co-authors of the competition work will not be able to participate in voting on its nomination.

In addition, instead of the diploma description, its sample will be established, and the production and accounting of forms will be carried out by the Verkhovna Rada Office.

Among technical innovations — unification of page numbering placement in two volumes of documents, the possibility to use abbreviations only after mentioning the term more than three times, cancellation of the requirement to submit a USB drive with scanned documents, as well as clarification of requirements for submission letters, extracts from protocols, lists of scientific publications, and descriptions of competition works.

Additional requirements are introduced for the National Research Foundation of Ukraine regarding notification of the submission of revised data and exchange of documents between the author and the nominating entity.

Also, a new ground for rejecting an application will be the discrepancy of the paper version of documents with the electronic one.

Evaluation of scientific achievements will be carried out over five years preceding the year of application submission.

Changes for the Borys Paton and Hryhorii Skovoroda Scholarships

For the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine scholarship named after Borys Paton, it is also proposed to move from the diploma description to the approval of its sample. The production, preparation, and accounting of diplomas will be assigned to the Verkhovna Rada Office.

Regarding the Hryhorii Skovoroda scholarship, the document corrects a technical error. It is envisaged that the person awarded this scholarship will have the title of scholarship holder of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine scholarship named after Hryhorii Skovoroda, not Vasyl Sukhomlynskyi.

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