Scientists of the second youth in science do not hold on – Newspaper Kommersant No. 28 (7473) of 02/15/2023

In 2021, the replacement rate for young researchers (up to and including 39 years of age) — the ratio of the number of people hired by Russian scientific organizations to the number of those who left — decreased to 1.12 from 1.17 in 2020. According to the Institute for Statistical Research and Economics of Knowledge (ISSEK) of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, at the end of 2021, the organization accepted 22.9 thousand young scientists (or 58.6% of the total number of accepted researchers), but half of the scientists who dropped out during the year (20 ,6 out of 41.2 thousand people) were also people under 39 years old. “This increases the urgency of the task of securing young people in science, the solution of which requires … additional support measures,” the ISSEK states.

The coefficients are higher than one in the subgroups under 25 years old (1.52; in 2020 -1.61) — about half of the researchers in this category come to science immediately after graduation — and in the subgroup of 30–39 years old (1.08 and 1.07 respectively). The situation is quite different among young scientists aged 26–29. Already in 2020, the replacement rate was less than one (0.94), in 2021 it dropped to 0.8, even taking into account the influx of new personnel.

Among the young researchers hired in 2021, 54.9% are entrenched in the entrepreneurial sector of science, 22.7% in the public sector, 21.5% in higher education, 0.9% in the NPO sector. Similarly, the number of dropouts was distributed among the sectors of science – 56.6; 25.7; 16.8 and 0.8% respectively. As a result, the number of young scientists in 2021 amounted to 149.4 thousand people (plus 14% compared to 2010), or 43.9% of the total number of researchers in the Russian Federation.

The leaders of scientific organizations and universities rather moderately assess the level of sufficiency of young people in science (3.43 points out of five possible), in the next three years they expect some improvement in the situation (expectations index – 3.71). At the same time, the most positive attitude is in universities (4.02 in three years), which is associated with the implementation of a number of large-scale measures to support universities. On the contrary, the leaders of scientific institutions do not see any particular reason to improve the situation with personnel. Managers give the highest rating to the financial measures of state support for young scientists – bonuses and scholarships (75 out of 100 points). Supporting research projects for graduate students and providing housing for young scientists scored only 63 points each.

Venera Petrova