The tidbit of it

On the arrow of Vasilievsky Island in St. Petersburg, the battle for academic real estate is flared up.

One of the main concerns associated with the RAS reform announced in 2013 was the fear of losing the unity of academic science: many were afraid that such influential players as large universities or the Kurchatov Institute NIC would begin to take academic institutions under their control and, ultimately, academic science as such will cease to exist. The sad fate of itef has become an example of what can happen even with a very strong institution. The transition to university management, in which, as a rule, the level of scientific research is lower than in academic institutions, and the level of bureaucratization is much higher, was also considered by most employees of the RAS institutions as extremely undesirable.

Despite the fact that a number of universities made very active attempts to take the institutions of the Russian Academy of Sciences after their submission to Fano Russia in order to improve their positions in the ratings by increasing the number of publications, the process of assigning a “poorly lying” failed. But after academic institutions and universities were subordinated to one ministry, and at the highest level there was talk about the integration of universities and scientific organizations, the scientific institutions of independence again became probable. The opening opportunities, apparently, also felt universities, an example of which the story described below can serve as an example.

Currently, in the very heart of St. Petersburg, on the shooter of the Vasilievsky Island, in the historical building of the Northern Packgausa Exchange, built in 1832, under the leadership of the architect I.F. Lukini, where institutions of the Academy of Sciences are located, serious battles with the participation of several academic institutions, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education and National Research have been located since the forties of the twentieth century. University of Information Technology, Mechanics and Optics (NRU ITMO).

In the building, an object of cultural heritage, which is in the operational management of the Institute of Chemistry of Sylicals named after I.V. Grebenshchikova RAS (NIS RAS), in addition to this institute, are located the following academic institutions (historically on the rights of free users): the Institute of Geology and Geochronology of the Docembries of the Russian Academy of Sciences (since 1967), the Institute of Chemistry of High Molecular Compounds of the Russian Academy of Sciences (since 1948), the Central Museum of Soil Science named after V.V. Dokuchaev (since 1950), the garage of the St. Petersburg Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (since 1950), partly branches of the archive and library of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Naturally, their RAS is burdened with the obligation to maintain the building in proper condition.

This place, in fact, is a small and established academic town of the Northern capital, where fundamental research is not only conducted and large thematic Russian and international conferences in the current areas of chemistry, geology, mineralogy, etc. are held, but science and popular events are organized, which were loved by citizens and guests of St. Petersburg, for example: the annual festival “In the museum today, in the museum today, in the museum in the museum today, in the museum in the museum in the museum in the museum today, in the museum in the museum in the museum in the museum in the museum today, in the museum in the museum, in the museum in the museum in the museum. Science is tomorrow ”,“ The Night of Museums ”and a number of others, in particular, the popular science project of their RAS“ Scientific Open Laboratory “14 Element” ”.

Everything would be fine, but the accident that happened in ITMO last year entailed a chain of events that poured into a serious conflict. Recall that February 16, 2019 in one of the educational buildings of ITMOs there was a collapse of the ceilings. The director of their Russian Academy of Sciences Irina Kruchinina responded to the oral appeal of the ITMO Rector Vladimir Vasiliev and invited the university to temporarily occupy the premises in the Laboratory Corps of their RAS, located in the Vasileostrovsky district of St. Petersburg, on the street. Odoevsky, 24/2, for the placement of equipment and conduct lectures. ITMO employees said that the university requires an area of ​​about 300 m2, personally examined the premises, but they chose others on Novoismailovsky Prospekt, as the head of the chemical and biological cluster Vladimir Vinogradov reported in a telephone conversation.

It would seem that everything was resolved safely, but ... The rector of ITMO, apparently, really wanted to get the premises of their RAS on the arrow of the Vasilievsky Island. He decided to apply power methods by enlisting the support of the Ministry of Education and Science in the person of the deputy head of the department of coordination of the activities of scientific organizations Irina Chugueva, whose duties, we note, are not included in real estate decisions and curators of universities - this is the prerogative of the Department of State Policy in higher education.

It must be emphasized that Vladimir Nikolaevich personally did not negotiate with the administration of the NIS RAS on the interaction of two organizations as equal partners. In an interview with [ 1 ], Mr. Vasiliev said that in the summer of 2019 he developed plans to interact with the Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Shevchenko (the former director of their RAS, now the sector of the study of the institute), about which the current leadership of their RAS was not known. In the same interview, he gave an inaccurate, in our opinion, information about the activities of their RAS and his current work.

At the end of last year, a letter from the Russian Ministry of Education and Science, an indication of the ITMO, was received in their RAS, an area of ​​about 5000 m2 on gratuitous use for the placement of a chemical and biological cluster (see Letter of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia dated December 23, 2019, Exodus No. MN92/2115 [ 2 ]).

The team of the Institute, the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Trade Union of RAS Workers and the scientific community have disagreed with the decision of the Ministry; Many saw in such actions a threat to the seizure and liquidation of the institute that could start the redistribution of academic property.

All requests about the current situation sent to the Ministry of Education and Science, the President of Russia, the presidential adviser, to the profile committee of the State Duma, etc., were launched down in the best bureaucratic traditions - and ended up on the table with the same officials who, apparently, are pushing profitable ITMO solutions. The opinion of the labor collective and the administration of the NIS RAS, who believe that these premises are extremely necessary for the institution for development, were ignored.

The fact that the threat of liquidation of the institute by gradual absorption of its areas is quite real is confirmed by a number of well -known facts. In particular, the State Optical Institute (GOI) named after S. I. Vavilov lost almost all his branches at the turn of the century, since the minimum perception seized most of its territories and transferred to other departments. At the site of laboratories in Birzhevoy Lane, the company Lenspsmu built a residential complex “near Rostralny columns” with a Sokokos hotel, and buildings 4 and 14–16 on the exchange line and 3b on the cadet line went into use by ITMO University.

The fate of Goi them. S. I. Vavilova, a world-famous scientific and technical organization, on the basis of which in difficult post-revolutionary years the domestic school of optical glass was created and without which the successful development of the optical industry in modern Russia was impossible-turned out to be unenviable. In 2012, against the will of the institute’s employees, most of his real estate passed to the holding of Schwabe JSC. GOI employees tried to save their native center, but attempts were unsuccessful: due to the fault of the Schvaba head holding, the institute was left without specialized orders from the Ministry of Defense and lost the historical territory near the arrows of the Vasilyevsky Island with an area of ​​three hectares.

A similar fate befell the St. Petersburg State University of low-temperature and food technologies (SPbGUNIPT). In 2011, he ceased to exist, as he was attached to the ITMO University, changing the name to the Institute of Cold and Biotechnology. At that time, 6,500 students, 82 teachers, among whom were doctors of science, professor, were in SPbGUNIPT. In 2015, the institute was finally disbanded: two faculties of ITMO - refrigeration, cryogenic technology and air conditioning were created on its base; food biotechnologies and engineering. It would be interesting to compare the achievements of SPbgunipt employees before and after its absorption ITMO. Was the sheepskin costing?

It is wrong to bypass the evaluation of the ITMO, like ideal gas, which is violently expanding in all directions and occupies all the volume provided to it. The former Leningrad Institute of Accurate Mechanics and Optics (Litmo)-now the University of ITMO today occupies a very significant territory in St. Petersburg.

Now it is fashionable to draw up ratings of organizations according to formal indicators or reviews. The university rating, compiled on the basis of independent reviews of its students and teachers (Tabiturient.ru), is very low: out of 1688 reviews, 72.5% are negative, 13.7% are neutral and only 13.8% are positive. The authors of some reviews frankly write that the most important thing for the university is aggressive PR, in fact, the situation looks much less rainbow.

But maybe the NIS RAS is, to put it mildly, not in the best shape and with the transition under the ITMO wing, the institute will open a second wind?

In today's very difficult time, the institute in many respects managed to maintain the multidisciplity and continuity of historically established directions, which very organically fit into the new, priority, determined by the strategy of the scientific and technological development of Russia: 1) research in the field of nanoparticles, nanomaterials and nanocomposites based on oxide, hydroxide compounds; 2) the synthesis of new inorganic substances, the study of the structure and properties of high -temperature oxide compounds, phase equilibrium of oxide systems; 3) chemical energy and ecology, including the development of sources of renewable energy, including bioelectrochemical systems, and electrochemical drives; 4) the development of biocompatible and/or bioactive functional materials, as well as biocides, etc.

Among the most significant and important applied works of recent times - the development, within the framework of the state defense order, protective coatings for the shipbuilding industry, including for operation in the Far North, as well as the improvement of previously created coatings. In order to expand the circle of such applied works, their RAS became part of the Consortium Consortium and Marine Technique, created on the basis of the St. Petersburg State Marine Technical University in 2018.

Currently, interest in development in the field of technology of particularly clean quartz glass is actively increasing. So, since 2018, in cooperation with the relevant academic scientific institutions of Nizhny Novgorod and Irkutsk (the Institute of Chemistry of High -Cious Substances named after G.G. Ninth RAS and the Institute of Geochemistry named after A.P. Vinogradov SB RAS), work is actively involved in the restoration of domestic technology of quartz glass, which has been lost over the past decences. In March 2019, the NTS of the military -industrial complex and the Association of the “Steklosyuz of Russia” decided to set these extremely important strategic work on the basis of the NIS RAS. By the decision of the meeting of the Presidium of the Association "Steklosyuz of Russia", the director of the NIS RAS I.Yu. Kruchinin was approved by the Vice President of the Association in the direction of quartz glass.

To implement promising development plans at our institute, new structural units have been created. For example, for a comprehensive and deep study of substances of various nature, a joint laboratory of natural and technological objects, which is the first step towards the creation of the center of interconnected precision analytical devices of the world level, is organized jointly with the Institute of Geology and Geochronology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IGGD RAS).

As part of the implementation of the project “The Scientific and Technological Closter“ Breakthrough ”on the joint initiative of the NIS RAS and LLC Mezhregioninvest, the Scientific and Technology Center“ Glass Technology ”is created, the purpose of which is to form high-tech, breakthrough solutions in the technological sphere for modern glass industries. The work of the Center should be considered as a real and effective site for the network interaction of students, teachers, scientists and industrial partners not only of St. Petersburg and the Novgorod region, which corresponds to the agreement signed between the governments of St. Petersburg and the Novgorod Region on May 24, 2018, but also in the direction of the development of intra-Russian and international cooperation.

You can not pass by the extremely important issue for the development of any organization - personnel. There are many youth in the institute who accepts the baton with the older generation and continues the glorious traditions of their RAS. Now about half of all researchers under 39, of which 40% are researchers under 30 years old. Each year, young representatives of their RAS win in competitions of various funds (RFFI, RFF, etc.).

So in 2019, 80% of the applications of young scientists of their RAS received support in the competitive selection conducted by the KNVC of the competitive selection. Young employees, in addition to scientific research, give open and scientifically popular lectures and conduct master classes for students and schoolchildren, act as experts at all-Russian competitions.

Thus, in such a complex and unstable, especially for the scientific community, time, in the conditions of chronic underfunding of fundamental science, the historically developed directions of the scientific activity of the NIS RAS are still relevant, in demand by the industrial sector of the economy, continue to develop and expand-so areas, temporarily free, will not be empty.

The story of the transfer of the premises of the RAS RAS received a resonance thanks to the plots on local and federal television channels, publications in the press. О недопустимости своевольного распоряжения академической недвижимостью неоднократно заявляли в своих обращениях сотрудники ИХС РАН и представители научно-производственного сообщества: Отделение химии и наук о материалах РАН, научные организации, ассоциация «СтеклоСоюз России», Санкт-Петербургский союз ученых, ряд региональных организаций Профсоюза работников РАН: томская, нижегородская, казанская, саратовская, Pushchinskaya and St. Petersburg. However, the voltage does not fall. Their RAS RAS is still under the threat of the loss of the noticeable part of their areas, so necessary for it. And such a turn of events can create a very dangerous precedent for redistribution of academic property.

The team of authors -
Employees of the NIS RAS:

Tatyana Viktorovna Anthropova,
doct. chem. sciences,

Tatyana Aleksandrovna Kochina,
doct. chem. sciences,

Olga Alekseevna Shilova,
doct. chem. sciences,

Natalya Gerldovna Turina,
cand. chem. sciences