Latvian Council of Science (LCS)
Key contact
Professor Iveta Ozolanta
About
The Latvian Science Council (LSC) is the governmental institution under the authority of the Ministry of Education and Science which deals with science and research within the country as well as international cooperation issues. The LSC was founded in 1990 by the Cabinet of Ministers. It consists of 24 members with representatives from the Latvian Academy of Sciences, Latvian Council of Rectors, Latvian Association of Scientists, Expert Commissions and several branch ministries. The mission of the LSC is enabling research in the basic and applied sciences, especially in interdisciplinary research; consulting the Government on research policy issues and active participation in establishing Latvian science policy; care about publishing of scientific literature and promotion of international contacts of Latvian scientists. LSC is the main expert and financing organization for science and research providing evaluation and funding the basic and applied research projects.
The LSC has 5 Expert Commissions, which review and evaluate research projects. Each Commission consists of 10 to 13 experts, which are elected by Latvian scientists in following research fields:
Natural sciences and mathematics
Engineering and computer sciences
Biology and medicine
Agriculture, environment, earth sciences and forestry
Humanities and social sciences
One of the milestones of the Latvian research policy is the integration in the European Research Area. In the context of the EU the Latvian research policy is aimed at coordination of national research priorities with those of EU and promoting the Latvian research potential towards European research priorities. With the aim to increase the coordinated implementation of national research programs with other EU national research programs LSC actively participates in several ERA-NETs (currently BONUS Plus, MATERA, Pathogenomic etc.).