The patient is rather dead
Tatiana Golikova told scientists about the problems of Russian science
On Tuesday, the general meeting of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which traditionally takes place twice a year, was attended for the first time by the profile Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova. She presented the academics with "frightening" statistics on the decline in the volume of Russian research in biology, physics, mathematics and other priority areas of science. Ms. Golikova spoke about "actually inefficiently spent resources" and demanded "categorically change" the situation in Russian science.
The general meeting was opened by the head of the Academy Alexander Sergeev, who recalled that in 2016 Vladimir Putin approved the Strategy of Scientific and Technological Development of Russia. "The stage of forming tools for its implementation has now been completed, and the RAS has a big role to play in this matter," Mr. Sergeev said. The Coordinating Council for the Implementation of the strategy has formed seven councils in priority areas, each of which is headed by a member of the RAS. "On Tuesday and Wednesday we will discuss the first proposals from these councils," the head of the academy said. "It depends on our work how quickly the country will get on the rails of innovative development and how soon we will overcome our technological lag behind the economic leaders, the locomotives of modern scientific and technological progress," the president of the Academy added, complaining that there is "no surplus of labor and financial resources" in the country, and "the geopolitical situation is also it is not conducive to borrowing knowledge and technologies from abroad."
The general meeting of the Russian Academy of Sciences was attended for the first time by Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova, who has been in charge of social policy and science in the government since May 2018. Briefly stating that Russia remains among the "world scientific powers," Ms. Golikova quickly moved on to listing "unresolved problems that hinder the scientific and technological development of the country." In particular, she mentioned the irrelevance of many studies, the concentration of scientific potential in only a few regions of the country, the outflow of young personnel, as well as the "weak susceptibility of the economy to innovation." "These problems create high risks of Russia gradually falling behind the world's technology leaders and devaluing domestic investments in science and technology," she said. "This creates risks in the field of national security as well."
The Deputy Prime Minister presented disappointing statistics about Russian science.
Thus, in 2016-2017, RAS experts assessed the quality and potential of more than 9 thousand scientific projects. "31% are at the world level, 35% correspond to the Russian scientific level, but 8% of the results were below this level. In fact, these are inefficiently spent resources, – said Tatiana Golikova (she did not tell about the level of the remaining 26%). "Given the challenges facing the country, such a structure should not suit us."
Finally, Ms. Golikova told about the very recent data "received on Monday from an information system that tracks scientific research."
"In 2016-17, there has been an increase in the number of studies on a number of innovative, significant technologies in the industry. These are the creation of energy-saving systems (13%), rocket, space and transport equipment of a new generation (44%), and there is almost a twofold increase in basic technologies of power electrical engineering," she said. – In general, an increase in the number of studies has been recorded – unfortunately, and maybe fortunately for someone – in the humanities. But at the same time, there is a decrease in the number of studies on cellular technologies (37%), bioengineering (30%), diagnostics of nanomaterials and nanodevices (30%), high-performance computing systems (32%), genomic technologies (32%)."
According to her, a decrease in research is also observed in physics, mathematics, biology, geology, mining and automation. "It seems to me that such figures should not just surprise you, they should scare you,– Tatyana Golikova said. "We absolutely must change what is happening here today."
From the editorial office:
In 2016, the investments of the United States of America in scientific research amounted to 464 billion dollars, the European Union – 350 billion, and China – 412 billion, i.e. 1.5 of the federal budget of the Russian Federation.
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