From shady scientists to charlatans
How science and business are combined in RussiaNikolay Prorokov, "Theories and Practices"
In Russia, due to the peculiarities of science financing and the state of the economy, there are several models of combining entrepreneurial and scientific activities. T&P decided to talk about who shadow scientists, grant-takers and unrecognized heroes are.
Most scientists have approximately the same answer to the question why they went into science: they could be motivated by the desire to improve the world, increase the knowledge of mankind by exploring the unknown, the desire to satisfy their own curiosity and craving for knowledge, the desire to be at the forefront of human development or just enjoy experiments. The money factor in such a list usually turns out to be somewhere in the tail. Despite this, the financial issue sometimes causes scientists some discomfort.
The level of their salaries, even in the most prosperous countries for science, fluctuates around average marks, and comparing their earnings with the much larger income of acquaintances from, for example, the financial sphere, the scientist will inevitably think about the injustice of this state of affairs.
So, according to research by the New Scientist magazine (Careers Guide 2013: The state of pay), in the UK and the USA, the average salary of a scientist is 35,900 and 46,000 pounds, respectively, which, although it provides a comfortable standard of living, in both cases corresponds to the average salary in the country and is significantly inferior to the salaries of many professionals – the same for example, a train driver gets on the London Underground. This factor is, of course, one of the determining factors when deciding to create a side business.
Other important factors are distrust of commercial or government structures that are ready to implement certain ideas of scientists, the banal lack of organizations that can do this, and, finally, the "why not" factor, since favorable conditions for the development of scientists' business have been created in the same USA and Great Britain. These are both resolved organizational issues (in many US institutes, scientists are given free time to implement their own business initiatives), and the existing legislative framework (for example, the Bay-Dole Act).
For Russia, in addition to the reasons for the diversification of the activities of scientists listed above, there are also country-specific ones. Below are some types of business scientists illustrating these reasons.
Shadow ScientistsShadow scientists are one of the first types of entrepreneurial scientists to emerge.
They appeared during the period of lack of money in science, which lasted until the beginning of the noughties, a time when those who could, left Russia or looked for any other job, and those who remained in science lived below the poverty line. The capacities of scientific organizations were mostly idle, but at the same time they remained working and competitive. The first business model of shadow scientists-entrepreneurs was the outsourcing appendage model. Using established business contacts abroad, they collected orders mainly for experimental work, which was carried out de facto using the capacities of state scientific organizations (starting with employees, ending with premises), and de jure - specially created for these purposes by firms.
Thus, everything was absolutely legal for the customer – he signed a contract with a certain LLC and paid with him. The range of such works could be the widest – from complex laboratory syntheses to studies of the physical properties of materials. The management of scientific organizations at the same time turned a blind eye to the activities of such LLC. Firstly, it was one of the few stable earnings, albeit gray, not only for the organizer of such activities, but also for all scientists involved in it – it ensured the retention of personnel at the institute and, thus, the continuation of fundamental scientific research. And secondly, part of the proceeds from shady activities went to conduct these studies.
To date, shadow scientists and entrepreneurs still exist, but their number has significantly decreased - most have come out of the shadows. At the same time, it is difficult to say what motivates shadow entrepreneurs to continue such activities in the 10s - greed, uncertainty in the future or fear of losing a scheme worked out for years in case another crisis occurs in Russia and funding stops.
Spin-offsThere are two main reasons why there is no need for shadow schemes and scientists-entrepreneurs have emerged from this very shadow: the first is that state funding for science has appeared, the number of funds providing research grants has increased, the size of grants and the likelihood that the grant will reach the end user; the second is that the resurgent economy has formed an internal order for scientific services in such quantity that it became possible to create enterprises that comply with tax and labor laws.
At universities and institutes, centers that inherited the structure and personnel of the corresponding shadow enterprises began to appear en masse, but legally were part of the institutes. Thus, a scientist-entrepreneur who has come out of the shadows remains in the rank of a leader – according to the existing legislation, all monetary turnover and intellectual property are regulated by the university/institute. At the same time, he lost the halo of the savior of science and acted more in the genre of a strong business executive, who, in addition to his main scientific activity, provided his fellow scientists with additional, not only earnings.
The activities of these centers are usually applied in nature (the same set of services as in the 90s) and rarely innovative. This picture changed only after 2009, when Federal Law No. 217 "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation on the Creation of Economic Companies by Budgetary Scientific and Educational Institutions for the Practical Application (implementation) of the results of intellectual Activity" was adopted. Now, on the basis of a scientific organization, enterprises can be created in which the scientific organization itself did not have a 100% share in the authorized capital and could not claim intellectual property rights - it remained with the founder. Thus, this law, along with its direct function of stimulating the creation of innovative businesses, allowed spin-off entrepreneurs to regain control of their enterprises.
Grant withdrawalsGrant withdrawals replaced shadow scientists-entrepreneurs as the most numerous class in the early noughties.
These are, as a rule, scientists engaged in fundamental research, the main source of funding for which are grants from state and commercial funds, such as the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, the Russian National Fund and others. Grant withdrawals usually work in large scientific centers, and having experienced some discomfort from the funding system "foundation – scientific center – scientific group", they create a small enterprise that would replace a scientific center in the above chain.
"Some discomfort" means at least two factors. The first is bureaucracy: acting as an intermediary between the scientific group and the foundation, the scientific organization does not take on the solution of bureaucratic tasks at all, but, on the contrary, strains with additional, and together with the second factor – the fact that the scientific organization takes over the administration of the money allocated by the foundation – the desire to get rid of such an intermediary quite understandable.
Moreover, administration consists not only in complicating the procedures for purchasing the equipment necessary for research, but also in the fact that the scientific organization on the basis of which the research is conducted takes part of the grant amount – from 20% to 30%. The average grant size, for example, of the RFBR is about 500,000 rubles, and deducting such a large share from them is often critical. Although the moral justification for the motivation of grant-withdrawing scientists is clear, nevertheless, their enterprises often have signs of one-day firms, and the grant-withdrawing itself can be called an entrepreneur with a big stretch.
Unrecognized heroesThe smallest type of Russian scientist-entrepreneur.
At first glance, their decision to become an entrepreneur does not look like something out of the ordinary - the same desire to create something practically important for the world, not trusting their idea to outsiders. What makes their motivation unique is their absolute confidence in the greatness of their ideas, the uncertainty of the academic community about this, their illegibility in sources of funding (they find investments for the implementation of their projects in the most unexpected places) and their immunity to criticism from colleagues. In other words, this is a lot of scientists and entrepreneurs, on the one hand limited by Linus Pauling (an honored scientist who is confident in the benefits of vitamin C and has not convinced anyone of this), and on the other - Viktor Petrik (entrepreneur, author of a number of pseudoscientific studies, a full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a person who has a reputation as a charlatan in the scientific community).
An example of such a type is Vladimir Khavinson, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, director of the Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, a member of the International Association of Gerontology, who has many publications and monographs, most of which are devoted to studies of the effect of certain peptides on aging processes in the human body. Despite the fact that the results of these studies and conclusions about the effectiveness of peptides were coolly received by the scientific community (which was expressed, for example, in the low level of citations of works), Havinson quite actively began to capitalize his ideas by establishing the production, promotion and marketing of life-prolonging drugs. At the same time, the promotion is quite aggressive – for example, scientific conferences are organized, which are essentially advertising companies. When selling, such means as MLM, exploitation of Havinson's merits, exaggeration of research results are used. The reason why Havinson's activities are not suppressed or even regulated, in addition to the fact that these peptides are registered as dietary supplements (the market itself is poorly regulated), one can only guess – perhaps a lobby formed due to the necessary connections is working, or perhaps it is really an undervalued product.
Despite the financial thaw in science over the past ten years, it is unlikely that these types of entrepreneurs, no matter how dubious they may look, will sink into oblivion. The main motivation for such activities still exists is uncertainty about the future in the light of the fall in the ruble exchange rate, oil prices and the coming crisis.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru24.11.2014