Sovereignty instead of grants – Newspaper Kommersant No. 234 (7435) of 12/16/2022

The leaders of universities and scientific organizations assess the conditions for the development of science in Russia as “restrainedly positive,” according to a review by the Institute for Statistical Research and the Economics of Knowledge (ISSEK) of the National Research University Higher School of Economics. The state of affairs in this area was assessed as a whole at 3.25 points on a five-point scale. The situation with international cooperation (grants, commercialization of inventions abroad, orders from foreign companies, and so on) is much worse than the average. However, over the next three years, scientists expect improvements in most areas, hoping for more state support and an increase in the demand for scientific results in the course of the ongoing movement towards achieving technological sovereignty.

The survey conducted by ISSEK (which is a continuation of the 2017 Doing Science project) involved representatives of 577 universities and scientific organizations – heads or their deputies for scientific activities. In general, despite the difficult economic situation and the impact of sanctions, the conditions for the development of science in the Russian Federation in 2022, according to the authors of the survey, were assessed by the respondents as “restrainedly positive”. The index of sentiment of leaders in the scientific field was 3.26 points out of five possible. In three years, respondents expect some improvement in the situation (the index will rise to 3.5 points).

The sentiment index is a generalized assessment of the state of science and its prospects in the Russian Federation. 79 factors are evaluated, grouped in eight areas: human resources, funding, material and technical base, information infrastructure, scientific cooperation, scientific results and their commercialization, interaction with society and institutional conditions.

Judging by the results of the survey, sanctions are already having a depressing effect on science (here – a “hard deuce”, the assessment of the situation is 2.04). After three years, the effects of restrictions may be somewhat smoothed out, but will still be noticeable (2.8). The most pessimistic assessment was given to the possibility of commercializing the results of intellectual activity abroad (1.75 points), as well as obtaining orders from foreign companies for R&D (1.84) and foreign grants (1.86 points). Another reason for pessimism is the refusal of foreign publishing houses to publish scientific articles by Russian authors (the assessment of the state in this area is 2.28). Scientists do not expect changes in the situation even after three years (2.87).

Among the internal factors limiting the development of science are financial issues (2.35) and institutional conditions (2.89). However, respondents expect positive changes in both areas (forecast – 3.21 and 3.28 points, respectively). There are areas in which, according to administrative scientists, there have been improvements over the past five years. We are talking, in particular, about increasing the salaries of researchers (3.37 in 2022 versus 2.90 in 2017) and supporting internships and advanced training for researchers at the expense of the organization (3.20 versus 2.44).

Recall that the authorities are responding to the difficulties that have arisen due to sanctions in terms of international scientific cooperation. The Ministry of Education and Science proposed to allow grant recipients – scientific organizations and universities – to change the composition of foreign partners for joint research and work with organizations from friendly or neutral countries. Another measure is the government’s decision to extend for a year, until December 31, 2023, the rule that when evaluating the effectiveness of projects, government assignments, state support measures and grants, the number of publications of Russian scientists indexed in international databases, primarily Web of Science and Scopus, as well as the factor of non-participation of Russians in foreign scientific conferences (see Kommersant of September 30).

Mikhail Gershman, director of the ISSEK Center for Scientific, Technical, Innovation and Information Policy, notes that in 2017 the general situation in science was assessed as “at an average level” and expectations were “restrainedly positive”. In his opinion, the fact that assessments for the future remain generally optimistic may be due to the hope of most leaders to strengthen state support for science, as well as to increase the demand for scientific results in the context of the tasks of ensuring technological sovereignty.

Venera Petrova