Academician Alexander Sergeev called “consensus” with the authorities his main achievement

Members of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, before whom he spoke on Monday with a pre-election speech, asked to submit a report on the work done. As you know, Alexander Mikhailovich again claims to be the head of the Academy. He presented the new program, noting that of the tasks outlined in the previous program for 2017, he completed 2/3 during the years of his presidency.

– Can you clearly formulate what you have managed to do for the Russian Academy of Sciences over the past five years? Academician Mikhail Sadovsky asked Sergeev a question.

Alexander Mikhailovich began with statistics:

– When the new program was being prepared, the 2017 program was taken – there were 20 priority tasks. When analyzed, it turned out that about two-thirds of it was completed.

The first and most important thing that, in the opinion of the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, he managed to do in his high position was to stop the tendency of the Academy to slide into a club of scientists, a club of interests.

– We managed to defend the positions of the Russian Academy of Sciences and our property, reach a consensus with all branches of power: with the first person, the second, the ministry, the presidential apparatus. To say that you are in contact with one or two persons in the government is useless. Nothing will be done! We must try to contact at different levels of power,” he said, as if addressing someone with parting words.

Sergeev emphasized that the relations he built with the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, or rather with its head Valery Falkov, led to the fact that in recent years the Ministry of Education and Science relies on the proposals that the Russian Academy of Sciences formulates for it in pursuing its policy.

In the academic environment, by the way, it was this point of the president’s achievements that was skeptical, not noticing what exactly the president achieved thanks to the “consensus”: “It is very reminiscent of a one-way game, and not in favor of the Academy,” one of the members commented on this point. RAN. – How many times has the Academy expressed its consolidated opinion, rejected certain projects of the Ministry of Education and Science, for example, the one that concerned the liquidation of the RFBR, its merger with the RSF. No one upstairs listened to us. So what is this consensus?

Further, from his merits, the head of the Russian Academy of Sciences singled out the establishment of control and coordination by the Academy “in the field of fundamental and exploratory research”, the maintenance of the instrument base: “Do you think it was easy ?!”.

Sergeev also mentioned the creation of complex scientific and technical projects, the so-called KSTP, a mechanism that connects developers with industrialists. For example, the first KSTP for the production of infant formula was formed just in the Urals.

– And whose efforts were made to return the scientific graduate school?! Sergeyev asked the audience. – It took us several years of work with the leaders of the state to do this.

Alexander Mikhailovich noted that he paid much attention to the issues of personnel policy, building the trajectory of the life path of a scientist, starting from school, namely, creating a network of basic schools of the Russian Academy of Sciences. There are more than a hundred of them in 30 regions of the country.

He also noted the high level of work of the Academy during the COVID-19 period:

“Gintsburg, Logunov, Ishmukhametov, Skvortsova,” he listed those under whose leadership new vaccines and drugs were created. “Next, let’s take defense. We have 22 general designers and heads of priority areas: Degtyar, Inozemtsev… Everything that flies and shoots now is the contribution of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Of the announced 10 new directions (two times less than in the previous campaign), Alexander Mikhailovich highlighted the return of the Academy’s status as the supreme body for managing fundamental and exploratory research. To this end, he considers that one of the most important steps is to obtain the status of the State Academy of Sciences for the Academy, because, in his opinion, only such a status will return to the RAS the authority of a co-founder of Russian scientific organizations.

Work with the real sector of the economy is in second place. Alexander Mikhailovich noted that in reality the country spends not 1% of GDP on science, as they say, but it turns out that companies and state corporations “gain” an additional, second percent by purchasing equipment abroad. It would be better, according to Sergeev, if they left this money here, ordering innovative products from our scientists.

In the third paragraph, Sergeev outlined the contribution of scientists to the country’s defense capability, updating the scientific groundwork under the so-called subprogram No. 6 of the Federal Program for Fundamental Research, for which there is already a presidential order for funding.

– Much that we have now is based on the Soviet backlog, – said the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, – if we are talking about the future, we must invest in the development of new types of weapons.

Among other things, Sergeev also highlighted such areas as improving the internal policy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, solving the problem with personnel, scientific diplomacy, a “very resonant” topic of scientific periodicals, creating mobile applications about the activities of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the issue of protecting the rights of the academic community for recreation and healthcare.

Recall that Alexander Sergeev was nominated for election by four departments of the Academy, which is not very much compared to his main competitor in the struggle for the presidency of the Russian Academy of Sciences Gennady Krasnikov (9 out of 15 departments of the Russian Academy of Sciences are behind him). However, the main, secret ballot is yet to come.