For canceling the decision of the RFBR Council

At the end of last year, the RFBR Council decided to cancel the competition for projects for the participation of Russian scientists in scientific events abroad (competition “z”).

We are publishing an open letter from scientists in favor of canceling this decision, which is published on the website www.onlinepetition .ru/rfbrtravel/petition.html Here you can also leave your signature. By the time the issue went to press, the appeal had already been signed by 1,444 people.

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To: The RFBR Council.

Copy: To the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation V.V. To Putin Dear Sirs!

The reason for this open letter was the decision of the RFBR Council of December 23, 2011 to cancel the “Competition of projects for the participation of Russian scientists in scientific events abroad (competition “z”).”

The cancellation of the “z” competition for many Russian scientists means the impossibility of presenting the results of scientific research funded by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research at international conferences. Participation in a European conference costs about 40-45 thousand rubles for one scientist. including flights, registration fees and accommodation. A conference in the USA costs 1.5-2 times more. The average size of a RFBR grant to the Mechanics Research Institute of Moscow State University, for example, is 456 thousand rubles. Let’s say 5 (half) of the grant participants went to a European conference. After paying off overhead costs (15%), no more than 1.5 thousand rubles remain. per month per person for the research itself. Thus, the initiative project grant turns into a travel grant. You will have to forget about salaries and equipment.

The RFBR Council recommends financing foreign trips by increasing the funds allocated for each grant for a competition of initiative projects. This recommendation was made after the end of the competition for initiative projects.

Grants from the largest European, American and Chinese scientific foundations are orders of magnitude larger than grants from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research. However, they allocate separate and considerable amounts for the travel of their scientists to conferences, which reflects a real concern for the prestige of their own science at the international level and makes it possible to benefit from communication with foreign colleagues. We are rolling back to a situation where our science is doomed to be “strong” in a single country. Isolation from world science leads to decay and stagnation. The authority of Russian science may drop to zero if at international conferences it is represented only by young scientists who are provided with grants from the organizing committees of the conferences and the corresponding programs of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research.

We demand that the competition “z” be preserved and that when drawing up estimates for initiative projects in the future, funding for foreign business trips should be at least 1000 euros per each grant participant. This will make travel financing schemes more flexible.

*In the signature to this letter in the “Comment” field, please indicate your position, academic title and name of the organization. In a month, this letter will be transmitted to the management of the RFBR.