Save science!

A number of Russian scientists working in various institutes in the USA, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, Germany, and Japan sent a letter to President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin with an appeal to support domestic science. The letter was published in the October 2 issue of Vedomosti.

According to the authors of the letter, fundamental science in Russia is in a catastrophic state. “Regression continues, the scale and severity of the danger of this process are underestimated. The level of funding for Russian science sharply contrasts with the corresponding indicators of developed countries. The massive outflow of scientists abroad has been and remains a huge problem for Russia.” Scientists are observing the “disintegration” of the “scientific fabric” created in Soviet times due to a powerful scientific and technical base and sustainable mechanisms for its reproduction.

Among the most pressing problems of fundamental science and education, scientists name the significant lag of Russian science from world-class science, the lack of strategic planning with the setting of clear goals, inadequate funding for actively working scientists, a sharp decline in the prestige of scientific professions, and a serious decline in standards in the teaching of natural sciences.

The authors of the letter believe that the president and/or prime minister should quickly develop a comprehensive plan for the stabilization and development of fundamental science and natural science education in Russia and involve “outstanding scientists, representatives of ministries, industry, as well as foreign experts” in the development of this plan.

Scientists also make specific proposals: increasing funding for science, ensuring working and living conditions for scientists, identifying the most important areas of scientific and technological progress and specific projects that serve as catalysts for development and lead to tangible fundamental results, such as the space and atomic programs in the USSR at one time were, active attraction to the territory of Russia of the largest scientific and technical projects of a global scale, ensuring absolute transparency of financial flows, achievable within the framework of international projects, radically improving the degree of integration of Russian science into global science, striving for leadership in the most important international scientific projects, introducing international standards for assessing the quality of scientific research labor, strengthening the system of independent scientific grants, creating the Russian Institute of Higher Research with the attraction of public and private funding.