RAS Reform: current state of affairs

Recently, a general meeting of the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences was held, at which a new charter of the SB RAS was established. In this charter, as in the Charter of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the right of the Academy of Sciences is recognized as the right of the highest scientific council of the country and the body that develops the scientific direction and outstanding recommendations for the financing and development of fundamental science and innovative development. A formal association was carried out through the Charter of the Three Academies: the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. The charter has been accepted, no longer up to discussion. Institutes of the Federal Agency for Scientific Organizations (Fano) and the Academy of Sciences have either joint or separate swimming. Since the management of the Fano is assigned the management of property and finances, our future depends on how the charter of the Fano institutions will correspond to the charter of the Academy of Sciences.

If scientists were at the head of Fano, then I would be sure of the possibility of close cooperation between these two structures. Now this is not so. The leadership of Fano consists of qualified and smart officials who (judging by the experience of other industries) do not represent the essence of the role of fundamental sciences. As a result, they rely on the opinions of experts and try to develop some kind of algorithm of requirements for any work, any project, any program. The requirement for the institutions of Fano is also developed. I imagine a picture: at the Institute of Teplophysics of the SB RAS, a plank, Ioffe, Basov, Prokhorov, Cherenkov (and so on), and for the first time, when applying for a project, introduce concepts such as a quantum, semiconductor or maser. None of the projects of these people would have been adopted, since the country would not have found an expert who would understand what was being discussed, or there were units, and, most likely, Fano officials would not have any idea about them. Cherenkov’s effect is a very voluminous example. Its meaning was not immediately realized. In modern language: a large opening gives rise to a new brand. Russian Nobel laureates appeared at the expense of abundant budget financing and the possibility of finding new ideas.

In pre -perestroika times, the main funding went through the budget, and the director of the Institute of Heatophysics of the SB RAS demanded completely new from me, what no one had done before. I had to strain the brains of both me and all my colleagues and generate these ideas. In those years, a lot was done, which put forward the institute of thermophysics to the leaders of world heating, heat -power and hydromechanics. Now, in order to do something completely new, you have to borrow money from other projects, and then, after the publication of articles in magazines with a high impact factor, fight for further projects in this direction. The path is long and far from affordable for everyone. It would be reasonable to reduce the number of custom -made competitive projects and grants and increase the share of budget financing in the group of leading institutions.

I am not a categorical opponent of the past reform. At one time, my article was published in the Trinity Option newspaper with a proposal to reform the Academy of Sciences [1], but you really want it as better and get it as always. Let's remember the shortcomings of the Academy of Sciences by the beginning of the reform. The first and formal reason was the corruption of the leadership of the Academy of Sciences, subsequently confirmed by the investigating authorities. The second-the average age of the members of the academy became infinitely great: 75 years among academicians and 70 from corresponding members, and all this time they tried to reduce the average age by allocating vacancies for “young” scientists. Formally, the introduction of vacancies of young scientists reduced the average age, but the quality of the academy did not grow. Many institutes overgrown with people who have lost creative abilities and scientists working on the side. The third reason for reducing the effectiveness of work in the fundamental direction was the departure of a number of scientists for parallel activities outside the institute. Many researchers are now creating their own firms. Until now, the outflow of creative youth abroad is still quite high. Guaranteed wages in institutes are ridiculous. The Doctor of Sciences has a salary at the level of the junior lieutenant of the police, and the main researcher at the level of the captain of the road-post service. The academician earns much less than the head of the department in the administration, and his total income along with academic scholarship is 60 thousand rubles. This forces scientists to simultaneously realize themselves in applied scientific activity outside the institute. We have to fight for a business contract, which are often performed on the basis of an existing fundamental science, and conquer the maximum number of grants. For many years I personally led projects with Air Products, NR, GM, in total in monetary equivalent, which amounted to $ 1.5 million. These studies were not fundamental, they did not generate new ideas about the structure of the surrounding world or physics of new phenomena. They answered the question "how to do better." These agreements allowed to support the financial capabilities of the institute in difficult times, and very significantly. Now there is an opportunity to engage in deep fundamental science on the basis of grants of the presidential program. Here, the main disaster is the lack of qualified experts. Of course, it is necessary to reduce the number of non-efficient institutes of the Academy of Sciences and the number of employees by reducing those who have lost creative activity.

As a result of the coming to the leadership of science, mainly economists, lawyers and ordinary associations of universities arise such strange and dangerous trends as, for example, unite everything. An example of this is the Moscow State University of Engineering Ecology, earlier the Moscow Institute of Chemical Mechanical Engineering, to which three other universities were attached, not even close in the specialization of students to the famous MIHMU and catastrophically inferior to MIHMA in terms of quality of training and qualifications of teachers. Everyone can make such a comparison by using any search engine. It is completely unclear, on the basis of what common sense the unification of absolutely incompatible structures was carried out and why it was given such an outwardly attractive name. Is it really not clear: if you add a unit to the top five, then you will get mediocrity - the three. The Moscow Institute of Chemical Mechanical Engineering was famous for the schools of professors of Gukhman, Shorin, Academician Kutepov and many others. Graduates were in demand at all enterprises of the chemical industry of Russia. There is no doubt that the rating of the united structure will begin to catastrophically fall compared to Mihma's rating. Reducing the number of universities, we will invariably reduce quality. I graduated from the Faculty of Energy of the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute and studied at the Novosibirsk State University. In the future, for several years I had to be the rector of NSU, which has currently become a national research university, to which the state gave an honorable opportunity to fight for the rating of the best universities in the world. With horror, I imagine that it would occur to someone to begin to unite Fano's institutions or join other universities in the city to NSU. One-way, the Hegelian dialectics "quantity goes into quality" is somehow interpreted. It is forgotten that the new quality can be both the best and the worst. The basis of fundamental and applied science is professionalism based on the specialization of knowledge. Fundamental science It requires deep knowledge of its science with the gradual, non -violent penetration of one science into another. So there was a chemical physics, physical aeromechanics and other sciences.

The creation of a small number of large federal universities, for example, in Vladivostok and in Krasnoyarsk, was quite justified, as it was accompanied by sufficient financing and invitation of leading professors. These universities were organized reasonably on the basis of the connection of strong organizations under strong leadership.

In a particularly difficult situation, the institutions of the Siberian department were. Financing the Presidium of the Siberian Branch has minimal sizes. There is a double reduction in the apparatus of the presidium. The main coordinating force - general financing - has disappeared. The functions of appointing heads of institutions passed from July 1 to Fano. At the meetings of the Presidium of the SB RAS and Fano, scientific reports will be obeyed without the possibility of financial support for certain areas. It is necessary to look for the possibilities of integrity coordination within the current situation.

I see the only opportunity that consists in the consolidation of the institutes of Akademgorodok with the Novosibirsk State University. This would be the most reasonable with the full use of the research part (nothing) of the Novosibirsk State University. Let me remind you that NSU arose after the liquidation of the Fakel youth organization in Akademgorodok. This organization, performing projects and a business contract based on cooperation with researchers of academic institutions, was an effective mediator between employees of the Institutes of the SB RAS and production, as well as other scientific organizations of the country. The research part of NSU is still a solid amount of work on the same principle. I personally plan an invitation of a leading scientist from Japan to NSU through nothing. Through nothing it is possible to conduct many contracts, projects and grants. Many years of work experience testifies to anything about this. It is important that you need to start not in a new place. We must not forget that the abroad of NSU is perceived as a complex from the university and all research institutes located here-the article on the Novosibirsk State University at the famous Oxford Encyclopedia testifies.

In the newspaper of the Search Scientific Community of June 27, a large interview was published with a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Arnold Kirillovich Tulokhonov, a member of the Federation Council, on the current state of science in the country. Although I am not a statesman, it seems to me that it would be extremely useful to create the Ministry of Science or Committee on Science and Technology, which, like many years ago, would organize and finance the activities of fundamental and applied science in the country with a support in the field of fundamental science on the Russian Academy of Sciences - the main expert council of the country.

1. Vladimir Narryakov. The reform of the Academy of Sciences is inevitable. http://trv-science.ru/2011/03/15/reform-Akademii-nauk-neizbezhna
2. Nadezhda Volchkova. The consequences ripened. Why are the fruits of academic reform? www.poisknews.ru/theme/ran/10989