Optimize experts, update science cities: scientists asked Putin to support science

The first optimization in many years, which was rather welcomed by the Russian society, was proposed to be carried out in the scientific field. RAS President Gennady Krasnikov, speaking at the Council for Science and Education under the President of the Russian Federation, proposed to optimize the set of scientific expert councils so that they would no longer duplicate each other. In addition, the head of the Academy of Sciences and other scientists present at the meeting made a number of rather interesting proposals to improve the efficiency of scientific research and applied developments in the country.

The first proposal, with which Gennady Krasnikov addressed to the President of the country, concerned changing the formation of state assignments for institutes and universities.

Of the total funding for science in Russia, 43% of budget funds go to them.

– In our opinion, they are not used effectively enough, – said the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences. – Today, the directors of institutes and rectors themselves form the topics of work for state assignments – as a rule, by that time, they are already 80 percent completed. They are sent to the ministry, then to us (at the Russian Academy of Sciences) for examination, with a request to evaluate their scientific character and the publication activity of the authors. RAS in 99 cases gives a positive answer. Or maybe if the question was different, for example: are there more important jobs at the institute, is it possible to change the parameters of the task to higher ones, then the answer from the academy would be different?

Gennady Yakovlevich cited the recent meeting of the Council for Comprehensive Energy Development Programs as an example. It addressed a very important issue for the country related to the creation of a generating turbine with a capacity of more than 350 megawatts with a revolutionary efficiency rate of up to 62 percent. To implement this valuable project for the country, a whole series of fundamental and exploratory research is required, which could be carried out with funds allocated for state assignments. But instead, budget money goes to other works that are not always relevant for the country, and for developments of particular importance, they have to be sought through sources of additional funding. According to Krasnikov, it would be better to immediately include such projects in the state task.

– Therefore, we propose the following algorithm: without changing the terms, change the procedure for the formation of the state task. That is, institutes must first send proposals on their work to us, to the RAS, to its thematic departments, where we will discuss them together with the institute. Our departments have the most up-to-date information on their topics and accumulate proposals from scientific councils, departments and scientific organizations on the demand for scientific results. Experts could correct the drafts and only after that send them to the ministry for approval of the state task.

Thus, according to the head of the Academy, it would be possible to solve several problems at once. First, there would be a new criterion for the demand for scientific results, and the effectiveness of the study would increase. Secondly, academicians would set higher parameters for the performance of work, and thirdly, all this would allow more efficient use of public resources.

The second question raised by Gennady Krasnikov concerned the organization of scientific expertise. Today, a lot of expert councils operate under various ministries and departments, which often overlap thematically. This, according to Krasnikov, scatters human and state resources, reduces the quality of the examination.

– For example, we have a Council for Quantum Technologies in the Russian Academy of Sciences, which I head, – says Gennady Yakovlevich. – We are conducting an examination of the implementation of roadmaps for quantum technologies. And now the Ministry of Digital Development is creating its own expert council for the examination of the same road maps for quantum technologies, offering me to enter there as the chief expert. According to the federal law on the Russian Academy of Sciences, one of the main functions of the academy is expert. We are constantly improving it, we employ more than 5 thousand experts. We do not pretend to monopolize, we want to streamline the examination process, excluding cases when one work is submitted by the author to various councils until he receives a positive conclusion on it. I ask you, Vladimir Vladimirovich, to support our proposal to optimize the existing expert councils.

In addition, Krasnikov voiced something that had been rumored among the scientific community for a week: he, together with the head of the Kurchatov Institute, Mikhail Kovalchuk, did a lot of work and prepared a draft resolution according to which the Kurchatov Institute would be under the scientific supervision of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

“This is a very important step in consolidating the entire scientific community to solve the key tasks facing the state,” the president of the Academy summed up.

– And how can expert work be changed? Vladimir Putin asked him.

– We have proposals that we discussed with Dmitry Chernyshenko (deputy prime minister of the government – Auth.) and Andrei Fursenko (adviser to the President of the Russian Federation). Together with the government, it is necessary to revise the existing expert councils and determine that there is no duplication of their activities. The second is to conduct a certain examination, or rather, an assessment of the level of competence of experts who are members of expert councils. As for the experts of the Russian Academy of Sciences, they are periodically recertified.

Science cities – a special status

Among those who spoke at the Council under the President of the Russian Federation, I remember the director of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Grigory Trubnikov. He made a proposal update the status of science cities in terms of their intellectual potential.

– In a number of cities, mega-installations are being created, somewhere there are technoparks, special economic zones, but unfortunately, in most science cities, the urban environment lags far behind such large cities as Moscow, Kazan, etc. And people need a comfortable urban environment.

Vladimir Putin ordered a special clause to include this proposal in the protocol. “You’re right, it’s a pity we didn’t think about it earlier,” he said.

Domestic manufacturer support

Maxim Nikitin, a scientist from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, who recently became famous thanks to his discovery in the field of genetics, suggested how to support a domestic manufacturer of scientific equipment.

“It would be great to encourage institutions to buy Russian equipment,” he said. – It would be necessary to prescribe in the rules for institutes that it is mandatory to purchase 2-3 or 10 percent of devices of only Russian production. We, for example, make good laminar flow cabinets, etc. Let there be true competition between their Russian manufacturers, so that they fight for quality.

Vladimir Putin suggested that Andrei Fursenko take this into account when preparing the draft minutes of the meeting.