We must catch up with Lithuania: the trade union of RAS workers called on the authorities to increase funding for science

The hall was provided by the Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where mainly local journalists and scientists were present live. For the first time, Donetsk also joined the scientific workers’ union via the Internet – it was represented by the deputy chairman of the trade union committee of the Donetsk Institute of Physics and Technology, Evgeniy Shemchenko.

The conversation at the zoom meeting, first of all, turned to the draft resolution on budgetary financing of fundamental science for the next three years – from 2024 to 2026. In February of this year, it was prepared and submitted to the State Duma by the Government of the Russian Federation. According to this document, in 2024 it was planned to allocate 253 billion rubles (0.169% of GDP) for fundamental science, and in 2025, oddly enough, significantly less – 232 billion rubles (0.136% of GDP).

In May, the general meeting of the Russian Academy of Sciences recommended that the government increase the amount of budget funding for fundamental science. In order to catch up in the next three years with 30 (!) countries that are far ahead in terms of the level of support for science (among them are Hungary, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia with 0.2-0.4% of GDP), the Academy considered it necessary to In 2024, allocation for fundamental research will be 415 billion rubles (0.26% of GDP), in 2025 – 597 billion rubles (0.33% of GDP), in 2026 – 800 billion rubles (0.44% of GDP).

It may seem that in the current situation, when the country first of all needs money for essentials: drones, missiles, airplanes and effective means for oil production, asking for money for high science is illogical. Oddly enough, those who have the right to distribute finances usually like to focus their arguments on this – an ironclad argument, in their opinion!

But the deputy chairman of the Trade Union of Workers of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Evgeniy Onishchenko, anticipating this argument in absentia, gave a convincing answer:

– The same turbines, airplanes and software that we once thought we could always buy are no longer sold to us! The situation of an affordable supermarket is over; in its confrontation with the global West, Russia must rely on its own strength. And in order to achieve technological sovereignty, which is much talked about from high stands, we must increase, not decrease, the number of researchers and the development work they carry out. For this, naturally, funding must increase.

They tell us: “Demand more money from business!” Business, of course, can be attracted, but in the case of fundamental research, it is not always ready to take risks without hoping for a 100% result. And the practice of strong powers shows that it is their governments that are the main investors in fundamental research. Moreover, investments in research and development are constantly growing all over the world.

In Europe, the USA, China and Japan, their share exceeds 2% of GDP, reaching 3% for many. For more than 20 years now, fundamental science has been funded at the level of 1% of GDP, that is, it lags two to three times behind developed countries. Now they don’t give even one percent of GDP, and the number of researchers in Russia (the only large industrialized country where there is such a trend) decreases by about 50 thousand people every year.

So, if the financing of our Einsteins continues to be carried out according to this residual principle, Russia, according to Onishchenko, may inevitably lose in the technological race.

By the way, by September, thanks to the joint efforts of representatives of the Russian Academy of Sciences and its professional union, it was possible to convince the Ministry of Finance to slightly raise the level of funding for fundamental science for the next year, 2024: the government raised the bar from 253 billion rubles to 266 billion rubles.

According to Evgeny Evgenievich, the government met the scientists halfway after hundreds of appeals received this year to the authorities, the president from 27 (!) regions, including Donetsk.

“The whole country has risen – from Crimea to Kamchatka, from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok,” says the deputy chairman. – Thus, our funding was increased to 0.19% of GDP from 0.16%. It’s a little more, but still not enough.

Against this background, the level of support for Chinese science that he spoke about looks very contrasting mathematician, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Boris Kashin:

– I was in China in August. They really, as mentioned earlier, decided to prioritize mathematics and IT for the creation of artificial intelligence; they invest two to three times more in science than we do. Our delegation was received by one of the Politburo members. The situation is this: they lure everyone to them, offering salaries higher than in the USA. And the people went to them…

Boris Sergeevich suggested that members of the RAS Trade Union analyze how many researchers have already left the country in recent years.

– According to my rough estimates, we probably lost 10-15%. The trade union must convey to the authorities the danger of a careless attitude towards scientists, the academician said.

For the first time I was invited to the meeting of the RAS workers’ trade union representative of Donetsk science – deputy chairman of the trade union committee of the Donetsk Institute of Physics and Technology Evgeniy Shemchenko. He expressed great gratitude to his colleagues:

– We feel that we are finally together, we feel your support! – he said, addressing all those present and the leadership of Russian science.

According to Shemchenko, DPR institutes have already been transferred to the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation (previously they belonged to the regional Ministry of Science of the DPR), all employees regularly receive salaries. But for now this is all support; next year Donetsk Physics and Technology is waiting for the promised update of the instrument base; this is the only way it will be able to attract young personnel to work.

After Shemchenko, employees of the Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences spoke, talking about the support that they are trying to provide both to refugees in the Northern Military District and to the military: they collect money for the most necessary things, weave camouflage networks. Nizhny Novgorod scientists called on employees of all scientific organizations in Russia to become more actively involved in the same work.

At the end of the meeting, the RAS workers’ union, as expected, adopted a resolution regarding the financing of science. As the event organizer told us, Chairman of the Nizhny Novgorod regional organization of the trade union of workers of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vyacheslav Vdovin, the union intends to write a letter to President Vladimir Putin with a request to raise funding for Russian science to the proper level. In addition, scientists decided to shift efforts towards deputies of the State Duma. Vdovin recalled that there are currently six deputies from the Nizhny Novgorod region working in the lower house of parliament.

“We are in constant dialogue with them, because they have to adopt the state budget, that is, the proposals that the government has made. We will insist that deputies definitely vote for the amendments that the Russian Academy of Sciences will introduce,” Vdovin said.