With Vladimir Putin staying on for another presidential term, researchers wonder if his government will reverse decades of scientific decline.
Leaving Russian science to its own devices, years later, Vladimir Putin finally began to pay more attention to it. At a meeting of the Science and Education Council last month, the Russian president pledged that science and innovation are now priority areas for the government. The March 18 presidential election is likely to extend Putin's rule for another six years, while scholars at home and abroad are wondering if the country can restore the rich scientific legacy of Soviet times.
“The Russian scientific system is outdated,” says Aleksey Khokhlov, an expert in polymer physics at Moscow State University. Lomonosov, Vice President of the Russian Academy of Sciences. "It requires a thorough revision, otherwise these promises are empty words."
Russia has a long work ahead of it on the way to restore its scientific power. Like many of the country's government agencies, its scientific infrastructure and workforce have suffered severely since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Lack of budgetary funds for science and meager salaries in the 1990s prompted thousands of Russian scientists to go to work abroad or stop research altogether.
But there are signs that Russian science is beginning to recover. Over the past decade, the Putin government has gradually increased investment and government spending on science, while spending on research and development annually accounts for about one percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
Signs of progress
In 2018, the Russian government allocated 170 billion rubles (US $ 3 billion) for basic research and development, a 25% increase over last year's baseline science budget. The number of scientific papers published in Russia from 2006 to 2016 more than doubled: in this parameter, the country is ahead of the scientifically growing Brazil and South Korea. According to statistics published in January by the US National Science Foundation, today Russia is among the top ten countries for the number of research articles - ahead of Canada, Australia and Switzerland.
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“Russian science has had an extremely difficult time, but now we are returning to a more predictable and well-organized situation,” says Artem Oganov, a materials scientist at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, who joined the Skolkovo Institute of Science in 2015. and technology. This private research university outside Moscow was established in 2011 in cooperation with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. “I would not have returned if it were not for the opportunity to engage in advanced science,” Oganov says.
For all its progress, state-funded Russian science continues to lag behind newly emerging scientific powers such as China, India and South Korea, especially when it comes to translating discoveries into economic gain. Khokhlov said decades of underfunding, excessive state bureaucracy and entrenched opposition to reform within research institutions dispersed across the country have hampered competitiveness. "We need new ideas, new laboratories, new talent and more freedom and competition."
Many Russian scientists are annoyed by government control over their work. A 2015 study by a team of Nature journalists showed that before submitting their work to foreign journals, many are required to submit articles for thorough review. Researchers are also horrified to learn of the crackdown on science-funding charities, which the Russian government views as "unwanted" foreign agents, including the Dynasty Foundation and affiliates of the Open Society Foundations founded by George Soros, an American philanthropist of Hungarian origin.
Hard-moving reforms
Putin intends to reduce Russia's dependence on oil and gas exports. However, Russian innovation experts acknowledge that efforts to diversify the Russian economy through scientific research, including the multi-billion dollar nanotechnology project launched in 2007, have not led to new sensational products or economic growth. In 2016, the government approved the draft Strategy for Russia's Science and Technology Development, which lists seven priority research areas that will receive government funding, including energy, health, agriculture and security. The funding and implementation of these initiatives will be overseen by councils led by scientists -that this measure will minimize nepotism on the part of government officials and administrators.
The Putin government also wants to reform the Russian Academy of Sciences, which operates more than 700 institutes in all fields of science. An assessment in January found more than a quarter of academic institutions 'ineffective' in terms of publications, research citations, patents, and more. According to Khokhlov, these institutes will be asked to change the direction of research under the new leadership, or they will be closed.
The government also plans to strengthen the position of underserved university scholars. However, the desire to bring at least five Russian universities to the top hundred of the world's best universities seems to Khokhlov an unattainable goal due to scarce funding, underdeveloped infrastructure and the inability to attract talented scientists from abroad. According to Konstantin Severinov, a molecular biologist at the Skolkovo Institute, the Russian scientist will find “incomparably better” opportunities anywhere else. "You can't build scientific institutions on money alone."
Long-standing institutional problems are not the only brake on Russian science. The sanctions imposed in response to the annexation of Crimea in 2014 resulted in the suspension of civil and military scientific research and consultations within the NATO-Russia Council. Putin's chief science aide, Andrei Fursenko, has been barred from entering the United States.
Russian support for the Syrian government during the ongoing civil war, as well as accusations of meddling in democratic elections, have further exacerbated relations with the West. True, so far geopolitics does not affect Russia's participation in large international research projects, such as the project of the ITER experimental thermonuclear reactor, which is being carried out in the south of France, or the European X-ray free electron laser, which is being developed in Hamburg (Germany). It also does not prevent the country from participating in numerous smaller bilateral cooperation projects.
But Russian scientists have a real reason to worry about the future of Russian science. “You can't do science inside a bubble,” says Fyodor Kondrashov, a Russian biologist at the Austrian Institute of Science and Technology in Klosterneuburg. - In a politically isolated country, there are serious obstacles to the development of competitive science. I don’t see how this can change while Putin is holding the reins.”
Quirin Schiermeier