What is the Researcher Mega-Grant Program

On July 13, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the resumption of mega-grant programs for researchers and instructed the government and the State Duma to provide funding until 2026. More information about the initiative is in the Kommersant help.

Scientific mega-grant competitions are open public competitions held by the government of the Russian Federation since 2010. The goal of the program was called “the creation of world-class research laboratories in Russian universities and scientific organizations under the guidance of leading scientists.” Among the tasks that it is designed to solve are the attraction and training of qualified personnel in science, assistance in conducting breakthrough research, stimulating the influx of young people into the scientific environment, and creating sustainable ties with the world’s leading scientific and educational centers.

Russian universities and scientific organizations can take part in the program together with foreign or Russian leading scientists holding leading positions in a particular scientific field.

The first competition, in which 179 Russian universities and 512 scientists took part, was announced in July 2010, and the winners were determined in October. Initially, it was assumed that there would be 80 winners, but before the announcement of the results it became known that a decision had been made to distribute only half of the grants.

According to information on the official website of the program, leading scientists from 36 countries were involved in cooperation for 2021. There were the same number of areas of science in which research was conducted. A total of nine competitions were held. Until 2022, employees of laboratories created under the mega-grant program prepared and defended more than 1 thousand dissertations, received more than 1.5 thousand patents and certificates of protection of intellectual property objects, published more than 7.5 thousand articles in scientific journals.