Academic leave

On June 28, a draft law on the reorganization of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) was submitted to the State Duma. The document provides for the unification of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences (RAMS) and the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences (RAAS) into one academy. From now on, scientists will not be able to manage the financial flows and property of the RAS

It is alarming that the decision to reform the academy was made in the summer, in complete secrecy from the public, from the members and leadership of the Academy of Sciences, and from the leadership of the specialized committees of the State Duma. One might say, in the regime of a special operation, although the government promised to report in advance on all major and important decisions and put them forward for discussion.

In the speech of the Minister of Education and Science Dmitry Livanov at a press conference on June 27, quite a lot of sensible words and proposals were made. For example, it was discussed that the main operating unit in the RAS would be a laboratory and a significant amount of funds would be distributed for research through a grant system. In all honesty, the Academy of Sciences has only one program (“Molecular and Cellular Biology”), which undergoes a full-fledged examination, as is customary throughout the world. All other money in the Academy of Sciences is divided according to a rather strange behind-the-scenes system. And in Livanov's speech, there were intentions to make the life of the new academy more civilized and transparent. But faith in his words is not enough precisely because decisions are made in such a hasty and non-transparent manner.

The bill submitted to the Duma does not say a word about who, how and by what rules will manage hundreds of institutes of the new united Academy of Sciences. But this is the most important thing. Reforms are needed, and the newly elected President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Fortov spoke about this. But they must be understandable. The main problem of the current Academy of Sciences is that it is a public organization that is the manager of state funds, that is, the Russian Academy of Sciences, in fact, is a ministry. Moreover, managing budget money, she gives herself an order and evaluates the quality of work herself. In fact, the expenditure of funds is not controlled in any way.

„

The head of the Russian Academy of Sciences may be Mikhail Kovalchuk, a man from the circle of President Vladimir Putin

”

Under the new bill, there will be a certain agency that will manage all the property of the giant academy - the new owner. But we do not know who he is and how he will work, there is not a word about this in the project. There are rumors that Mikhail Kovalchuk, director of the National Research Center Kurchatov Institute, a highly influential person who belongs to President Putin's circle of friends, could be in charge. His activities do not inspire confidence in scientists: as soon as the world-famous Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics became part of the Kurchatov Institute, ITEP was quickly destroyed. Note that after the merger of the RAS, RAMS and RAAS, Kovalchuk will automatically become an academician, like all corresponding members of the RAS, although so far academicians have voted him out several times.

The reformers declare their intention to transfer science to universities, as in many countries of the world. But science cannot be taken and simply transferred from place to place. At the very least, it is necessary to create such conditions at universities that strong scientists want to work there.

In short, all this is reminiscent of the purchase of serfs from one collective master by another.