Translated material
Probed by the Senate
The Minister of Education and Science tried to win over the Federation Council
The reform of Russian science continues to remain at a crossroads, since neither the executive nor the legislative authorities will undertake to approve the final concept. Minister of Education and Science Andrei Fursenko continues to convince his colleagues of the need for serious reforms in this industry. Yesterday he held another round of discussion about the future of the Russian Academy of Sciences and its institutes during government hour in the Federation Council.Let us recall that the previous high-level discussion of science reform ended in a scandal between Andrei Fursenko and German Gref, who stated during a government meeting on June 30 that his colleague’s program “has not been tested”, that it does not indicate specific goals or ways of their implementation, and a promise to raise the salaries of scientific staff to 30 thousand rubles. not supported by financial schemes. The Minister of Education and Science then tried to justify himself by saying that he already had “progress in the field of innovative projects.” And it was on this topic that he decided to focus his report at yesterday's meeting with senators.
Andrei Fursenko said that he is preparing a package of bills to create favorable conditions for innovation. The ministry decided to place its main emphasis on state research centers. “Now there are 58 of them left,” the minister specified, “but the list of State Research Centers should be significantly expanded.” Some of them will be engaged in fundamental science, and some in applied science. They will try to unite “applied specialists” into national laboratories based on the American model.
Reporting on the state of the scientific sphere as a whole, the minister once again returned to the idea of reducing research institutes and optimizing budget expenditures. “It is necessary to formulate a system for assessing the effectiveness of scientific institutions and academic institutions and to restructure all academic institutions that have shown their inefficiency,” the minister believes. “Government support should be provided only to advanced and promising scientific centers.” He also proposed creating a consolidated academy fund, which would receive funds from the sale of property of ineffective academic and scientific structures.
These measures, combined with an increase in the budget for science to 110 billion rubles. by 2008, they would have allowed, according to Andrei Fursenko, to reach a salary of 30 thousand rubles. for a researcher and 15 thousand rubles. for a young academic specialist.
The Federation Council greeted the minister's report with restraint. Speaker Sergei Mironov welcomed plans to increase wages. However, he told the minister that “the state must, is obliged and will finance fundamental science, including the humanities,” regardless of its prospects. As he explained to reporters after the end of the meeting, domestic scientists “should have the presumption of innocence” in terms of spending budget funds. And the Accounts Chamber should control this process.
The chairman of the upper house also criticized Andrei Fursenko for trying to impose on the scientific community the approval of the head of the Russian Academy of Sciences by the President of Russia. In his opinion, this was a “disservice.” “The Russian Academy of Sciences has a long history, and throughout history, scientists have always independently elected the president of the academy. And why do we need to change the existing system and bring the president and the country’s scientific community into conflict?” - said Mr. Mironov.
Nevertheless, the senators promised to think about Andrei Fursenko’s projects and deliver their verdict in the form of a special resolution on July 13 at a meeting of the Federation Council. But we can already assume that the verdict will be similar to the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers, where the head of the Ministry of Education and Science was asked to listen carefully to criticism and continue to work on the reform project.