After all, transformations should happen

On January 21, 2016, the first meeting of the Presidential Council on Science and Education was held this year, dedicated to discussing the preparation and implementation of the strategy of the scientific and technological development of Russia for the long-term period. At a meeting of the Council, another question was to be discussed - about the concept of strategy for the development of convergent technologies - but at the last moment it was removed from the agenda. Apparently, in order to avoid possible public embarrassment.

The very name of this strategy, as well as the presence of a document in the draft [1] to the important role of the Kurchatov Institute and the personal contribution of Mikhail Kovalchuk to the development of the conceptual apparatus of convergent technologies, did not leave any doubt about who was the ideological inspirer and possible beneficiary of this document.

The pragmatic goals of the authors of the document were also clearly marked: the redistribution of up to 10% of the funds of the general scientific budget of Russia in favor of the development of convergent technologies. The obvious redistributive goal, combined with the waste quality of the document, caused an extremely irritated reaction of the scientific community (including at a completely official level - in the form of negative reviews of the Russian Academy of Sciences).

At a meeting of the Council, the question of falling even nominal financing of Russian science in the context of a sharp depreciation of the ruble was practically not addressed; Participants tried to demonstrate a working mood and on -duty optimism. It was said that approximately 150 leading scientific and educational organizations give out 80% of highly focused work and 70% of patents, that you need to rely on these organizations, formulate the criteria for their discharge and tasks for them. The only participant in the meeting that did not show much optimism about the allocation of leading organizations and spoke quite a bit about the problems, - President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Fortov. He said, in particular, in fundamental science, it is dangerous to emphasize only in some bureaucratically selected leading organizations, which must focus on the internal assessment of the effectiveness of the work of laboratories and groups. What should “avoid actions that do not give a clear, visible, tangible positive effect for scientists-namely for scientists, and not for ineffective managers-managers and numerous scientists. Only in this way we will be able to overcome the alienation of working scientists from managerial managers arising from the reform. ”

At the opposite pole - in the role of an active supporter of the allocation of leading organizations and the consolidation of efforts - was Mikhail Kovalchuk. The question is, in his production, not whether to be leading organizations (they are well known), but in whether they can take responsibility for the development of some areas in today's environment.

The director of the Kurchatov Institute quoted Pasternak to explain his thought: “You know, Pasternak has a short poem“ High Disease ”. There he analyzes the October Revolution, and in the end he says such a thing about Lenin: “Then, when he saw him, I thought, thought without end about his authorship and the right to dare from the first person.” What is the answer: "He ruled the leather of thought and only because the country". " Further, Kovalchuk concluded: “Our question is that we must find organizations that must control the course of thought in specific directions, and this can be done only by initiative these organizations, if any, and help them administratively.”

President Putin summed up the meeting, and his replicas, in response to the speeches of the meeting participants, accurately conveyed the real mood of the highest power regarding the reform of science - fatigue and even irritation: to control the course of thought is good, but it is necessary to see what kind of thought, where it will lead us; It is possible to extend the moratorium on the transfer of “to the side” of academic institutions and their property, but “transformations must happen; In fact, for the sake of this, we all started events. ” Perhaps this remark is key.

“I started events” - this, of course, about the reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Having convinced President Putin to give a go -ahead to carry out a hasty reform that is completely not worked out in a substantial plan (you cannot consider a reasonable reform plan on duty about poor property management and ineffective work of the Russian Academy of Sciences), Andrei Fursenko and other participants and initiators of the process of reforming academic science were in a difficult situation. After all, no one saw tangible benefits from the reform, there were many problems, and our leaders have not been accepted to recognize their mistakes.

As a result, the leadership of the scientific industry only remains that actively engage in the imitation of useful activities (restructuring and the allocation of leading organizations, preparing development strategies for decades ahead, etc.), in order to report on the successful progress of transformations, and publicly convince the country's top leadership that the merger of several academies gave significant positive results.

After all, transformations should happen.

1. Http://trv-science.ru/uploads/converg_concept_project.pdf