Got lost?

As Rossiyskaya Gazeta reports (dated April 28, 2016), last Monday, April 25, a meeting of the Committee on Science, Education and Culture of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation was held, dedicated to the situation surrounding the creation of the Baikal Federal Research Center in Irkutsk through the merger of all academic institutions with the loss of their status as independent legal entities.

Similar associations are now initiated by FANO (at the request of some directors and/or academicians) in almost all regional scientific centers. However, the benefits of such associations are still not clear, while the negative consequences are obvious. In Irkutsk, in particular, to solve the problems of Lake Baikal, it was planned to unite institutions of completely different profiles, including those not dealing with these problems or devoting a small share of their attention to them. At the same time, the loss of the status of independent legal entities immediately leads to the fact that institutes lose valid licenses for certain types of work (for example, with X-ray radiation, geological exploration, etc.), are deprived of the right to teach graduate students, and face closure dissertation councils are left without current contracts with manufacturing enterprises. It is expected that all these issues that have arisen can be resolved in the future. But why create problems for yourself? After all, not in order to heroically overcome them later?

At a meeting of the Committee on Science, Education and Culture of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, FANO representatives were unable to give a clear answer to these questions. As a result, a clause was included in the draft decision on “the inadmissibility of a mechanical merger of successfully functioning scientific organizations whose main activities are not related to the study of Lake Baikal.”

A . AND .