Last chance

The government's draft federal budget for 2012 and the planning period for 2013 and 2014 has been published. Despite all the speeches made by Minister Andrei Fursenko about the importance of grant funding, the draft reflects the position of the Ministry of Finance - no additional money for scientific funds: for the period up to 2014 inclusive, the RFBR budget is planned to be kept at the level of 6 billion rubles. per year, the budget of the Russian Humanitarian Fund is at the level of 1 billion rubles. in year.

That is, if in terms of legislative regulation of issues related to science, in particular changes in the legislation on public procurement, some changes for the better seem to be planned, although there is no predetermination yet, then in terms of distribution of funding, scientists are made clear: no one intends to take into account their opinion. Money has been and will be allocated for billion-dollar projects lobbied by various scientific and management clans, primarily the leadership of the Kurchatov Institute.

If 3-4 years ago it might have seemed that the situation was beginning to improve - funding for science was growing, it was planned to launch a reasonable-in-plan "Personnel" Federal Targeted Program aimed at solving the most acute personnel problem in the field of science and education - but now most scientists have completely different feelings . State scientific policy, it seems, is finally turning into the looking glass into which political life itself in our country has long been transformed: all significant decisions are made based on the results of behind-the-scenes bargaining and coordination of the interests of the most influential players of the ruling team.

Scattered protests against the absurdity of certain decisions are ignored, and attempts to protest begin to seem almost hopeless. If we do not achieve some significant changes now, during the pre-election period, then the current status quo will be firmly cemented for many years. So this fall is perhaps the last chance to make changes for the better.

And it seems that there are prerequisites for this. A new element in the confrontation between the scientific community and the government may be the emerging unification of various registered and informal public structures to solve specific significant problems. Last week, the Moscow regional organization of the trade union of workers of the Russian Academy of Sciences decided to hold a rally in October, the two main demands of which would be to increase funding for Russia's leading scientific foundations, as well as to introduce changes to the law on public procurement. This decision was supported by representatives of initiative groups of scientists from other organizations.

Unlike previous protests, at which a wide range of demands were put forward, in this case the demands are extremely specific. The first is to ensure the volume of funding from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the Russian Humanitarian Fund in 2012 at a level at least not lower than in 2009, taking into account inflation (i.e. 10 and 2 billion rubles, respectively) and return in 2014 to pre-crisis standards for funding funds: 6 and 1.5% of total federal budget expenditures on civilian research and development, respectively. The second is the speedy adoption of amendments to the law on public procurement, providing for the possibility of spending funds received under grants, contracts and business agreements without holding competitive procedures, as well as the introduction of minimum acceptable rules for holding competitions in the scientific field within the framework of federal target programs (for details, see the website of the workers' trade union RAS www.ras.ru/tradeunion.aspx ).

It is expected that this time the protest will unite not only members of the academic trade union, but also representatives of the councils of young scientists of the institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as scientists working in universities. Representatives of informal associations, such as an initiative group of young scientists from Moscow State University, which prepared a spring appeal to the President of Russia regarding the law on public procurement, also expressed agreement with the slogans put forward by the RAS trade union and a desire to take part in organizing the action. The action should unite everyone who is directly affected by the problems of competitive funding of science. There is hope that the unification of various forces will make the rally quite massive, attract the attention of the media and finally force the authorities to listen to the voice of scientists. But only people’s activity can turn hope into confidence.

For now, it is planned to hold a protest rally on October 13 at 11:00 on Pushkin Square, but the place and time may change - they must be agreed with the authorities. Information about the exact time and location of the rally will appear on the website of the RAS workers' trade union (and the website www.dayte-uchenym-rabotat.narod.ru ) as soon as the authorities give permission to hold the rally. Information will also be disseminated through blogs and social networks.

E.O.