Why scientists from Europe and China stopped coming to Russia

The pandemic reduced international contacts of Russian scientists, and in 2022 the situation will become even worse. Taiga.info retells the report of experts at the Institute of Statistical Research and Knowledge of Knowledge of the Higher School of Economics.

Where do scientists go

During the pandemic, international scientific contacts were reduced . If in 2019 employees of the 151 scientific organization went abroad, then in 2020 this number fell to 93, and in 2021 it amounted to 106.

Almost three quarters - 72.9% - those who have left are researchers working in the natural sciences, 14.6% - in technical, 5.9% - agricultural, 4.2% - humanitarian, 1.7% - medical, 0.6%.

Most often, researchers went abroad for a relatively short time - from 3 to 12 months. Trips for 2 years or more met in about 10% of cases. The main host countries were Germany, France, Vietnam, the USA and Switzerland, and the pandemic included China.

How many scientists have come to Russia

On average, in 2019–2021, approximately 30% of Russian scientific organizations hired foreign researchers and teachers. A quarter of them were in Moscow, about 10% in the Novosibirsk region. At the same time, the rector of Novosibirsk State University Mikhail Fedoruk told Taiga.info that “many good scientists simply cannot get to Siberia.

In 2021, scientific organizations adopted 2118 foreign researchers and teachers - 23.4% less than in 2019. The number of foreign teachers for the period of pandemic decreased more than researchers - 28% versus 15.6%.

The reduction in incoming migration was partially compensated by remote employment. If in 2019 656 foreign researchers and 303 teachers worked on such conditions, then in 2021 - 735 and 589 employees, respectively.

More than a third of the influx of researchers to Russia in 2019–2021 was provided by the CIS countries - Kazakhstan, Belarus, Ukraine and Tajikistan. Another 21.5% was in China, Germany, India, Egypt, the USA and Vietnam.

What will happen next

In 2022, the situation changed, the authors of the report note. Now Russia will focus on attracting researchers from regions on the periphery of international scientific and technical cooperation-South Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America.

In addition, the Russian government may, following the example of China, deploy a program to return scientists to the country with the provision of the most favorable working conditions, the researchers of the Higher School of Economics suggest.

Ilya Kabanov, scientific observer Taiga.info (@ metkere )