Innovations in Russia: I cried
The state of Russia's innovation policy is deplorableAlliance Media News Agency
There is no unified balanced innovation policy in Russia – this opinion was expressed by a number of participants of the conference "Formation and implementation of the state scientific, Technical and Innovation policy", held on September 8 at the CCI of the Russian Federation within the framework of the Moscow International Salon of Innovations and Investments. The conference was organized by the Russian Association of Innovative Development, the Committee of the CCI of the Russian Federation on Scientific and Technical Innovations and High Technologies and the Committee of the CCI of the Russian Federation on Intellectual Property.
"The state of Russia's innovative development is deplorable," said Vladimir Lepsky, President of the Innovative Development Club of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Of all the countries in the world claiming an innovative breakthrough, Russia is the only one in which the number of scientists is declining. But the percentage of scientists of retirement age is growing, which indicates an extremely small influx of young personnel into science. The amount of state funding for science is also minimal – only 1% of GDP. The situation is not improving in any way, and there are no noticeable trends towards this, the expert stated.
In Russia, V. Lepsky is convinced, some elements of the methodology of innovative development do not allow to work effectively. The chosen approach – functional – does not provide an opportunity to answer a number of questions that "today the country's leadership does not even raise." And it would be necessary, according to the scientist, to decide: who, why and for what will carry out innovative development? "Today we have no interested persons either in the government or in the state who would do this," the president of the Innovative Development Club of the Russian Academy of Sciences believes. "A high level of corruption does not give motives for this activity. For corrupt officials, only the state that is now available is beneficial." The scientist stressed that there are subjects of innovative development in the country, as well as full-fledged examples of public-private partnership. Successful PPP-based projects are impossible due to the lack of trust between partners.
In addition, inefficient models of innovative development are used in the country, whereas in order to change the situation for the better, V. Lepsky is convinced, it is necessary to use new, "nonlinear models", as well as create "development environments". He gave an example of a negative approach to the formation of an innovative environment – technoparks, innograd "Skolkovo". Skolkovo is, according to the expert, "an example of an anti–environment, anti-innovation policy." "They are trying to include our brains in the work of Western firms to create a final product that will be bought by Russia," he said, adding that, despite the protests of the expert community, the project is "moving on."
The theme of the Skolkovo Innograd was continued by Boris Leontiev, General Director of the Federal Institute for Certification and Evaluation of Intellectual Property and Business. As he noted, foreign consulting firms are invited to this actively promoted project, which are "supposedly higher and better" than Russian ones, which is a misconception. It is necessary, B. Leontiev stressed, to raise the issue of supporting national consulting, because our personnel are not inferior to foreign ones. "There can be no innovative economy based on foreign consulting," he said.
The head of the Federal Institute of Certification and Evaluation of Intellectual Property and Business CJSC drew attention to such a Russian problem as the complete neglect of the best engineering personnel. In the 90s of the last century, according to him, the top technical staff was eliminated at most Russian enterprises, thus the owners achieved the efficiency of the enterprise. The authors of technologies that annually generate hundreds of millions of dollars of net profit have not yet received the monetary remuneration due to them, they are conducting lawsuits about this. This situation, in particular, is observed at MMC Norilsk Nickel, the company, according to B. Leontiev, spends crazy money in the courts in order not to pay the authors of the developments.
Vasily Goryunov, Director of the Institute of Legal Problems of Innovation Processes and Entrepreneurship, drew attention to the fact that things are bad with consumers of innovations in Russia. In developed foreign countries, such consumers are large corporations that finance 80% of science. We have practically no such structures, stated V. Goryunov. He also noted that foreign technological entrepreneurs focus on achieving the necessary quantity of products, the necessary quality, income from sales and retraining of personnel. Russian small enterprises also see difficult tasks in the form of confrontation with officials, so that all innovations often end before they begin.
"Despite the fact that the idea of innovative development has taken hold of almost all branches and levels of government in recent years, it should be recognized that there is no centralized balanced innovation policy in the country," said Svetlana Kosenkova, Vice–president of the Innovation Center of the VAO of Moscow. This leads to the fact that many activities and programs carried out by public authorities in the scientific, technical and innovative spheres are not effective enough.
During the conference, other problems related to innovative development were also discussed: imperfection of legislation, corruption, unavailability of financial resources, lack of highly qualified personnel in the regions. The participants offered their solutions to problematic issues, relying on local successes in the domestic field of innovation. At the end of the meeting, Moderator, General Director of the Russian Association for Innovative Development Marina Shichkina, assured that all recommendations will be summarized and sent to the executive and legislative authorities.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru13.09.2010