Translated material
Science in the draft budget 2012
In the middle of last week, the draft federal budget for 2012 and the planning period for 2013 and 2014 were released. was discussed at a government meeting and was thus generally presented to the public. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, in particular, said [1]: “The full development of the country’s economy is impossible without strengthening its base - science and technology. We will allocate 323 billion rubles for these purposes in 2012. 161 billion rubles will be allocated for space and telecommunications (including 20.5 billion for the development and use of the GLONASS system), almost 40 billion rubles for strategic computer technologies and software, and 17 billion rubles for promising developments in the field of nuclear energy. "
It is not very clear whether this refers only to expenditures on civilian research and development or whether the total figure partially includes expenditures on military research and development. Specific figures also raise questions: where did the 40 billion for strategic computer technologies and software come from? Apparently, nothing like this is planned in reality; the point is that the Ministry of Finance has simply scattered it among five presidential priority areas (“space and telecommunications”, “strategic computer technologies and software”, “nuclear technologies”, etc.). ) all federal target programs. This is exactly the conclusion that can be drawn from reading the table in the “Main Directions of Budget Policy for 2012 and the Planning Period of 2013 and 2014” published in the summer on the Ministry of Finance website. As a result, it turned out that all expenses for the Federal Target Program for research and development, as well as the Federal Target Program for the development of education, fell under the heading “computer technology”. Such a cute bureaucratic somersault.
A more reliable source of information is the draft federal budget itself, published last week on the Ministry of Finance website. What does it promise to science? It is planned to slightly increase funding for state academies of sciences in 2012. The Russian Academy of Sciences (including all regional branches) should receive 58.8 billion rubles. (this year - 55.9 billion rubles) for fundamental research (with a total budget of 64 billion rubles), the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences is expected to allocate 7.3 billion rubles for the same purposes. (this year - 6.4 billion rubles), the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences will receive 6 billion rubles. (in 2011 - 5.6 billion rubles). A slight increase in the budget of these academies (with the exception of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, whose funding should be slightly reduced in 2014) is also planned for 2013-2014. The National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute” is expected to allocate 7.2 billion rubles next year.
The structure of budget items is changing slightly, and this year’s draft budget does not contain information on how much the country’s two leading universities — Moscow State University and St. Petersburg State University — will receive for “science.” But the planned figures for the total funding of these universities look sensational: for the first time, a line in the budget of St. Petersburg University (almost 12 billion rubles) is somewhat more significant than a line in the budget of Moscow State University (11.3 billion rubles). Despite the fact that this year the latter receives almost twice as much as the former. Apparently, such a significant increase in allocations is associated with large-scale investments in infrastructure: for example, 2.9 billion rubles. will be allocated for the construction and reconstruction of facilities to house the Graduate School of Management.
It is planned to allocate 25 billion rubles for the implementation of the federal target program “Scientific and scientific-pedagogical personnel of innovative Russia”, and 20.5 billion rubles for the federal target program “Research and development in priority areas of development of the scientific and technological complex of Russia”. What about the financing of scientific foundations, the need for an increase in the budget of which the scientific community is constantly talking about? Financing from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the Russian Humanitarian Foundation, as well as funding from the Bortnik Foundation, is planned to be maintained at the current level for the period until 2014, i.e. put under inflationary reduction.
However, for now this is only a draft budget, and not a budget law, so there is still time to achieve changes.
Evgeniy Onishchenko