Russia celebrated the Day of Science on 8 February 2010. The Day of Science was established 10 years ago on the day when Peter the Great established Russian Academy of Sciences.
Russia has had major achievements in scientific research before and after the Bolshevik Revolution. The situation, however, changed radically following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
According to a Thomson Reuters report released on 26 January, based on the papers published in journals indexed by Thomson Reuters over 5 years, Russia now ranks behind such countries as China (415,000 papers, 8.4 percent of the world total), Canada (4.7 percent), Australia (3.0 percent), India (144,000 papers, 2.9 percent), and only slightly ahead of the Netherlands (2.5 percent) and Brazil (102,000 papers, 2.1 percent).
The report blames chronic underfunding by the Russian government, an aging scientific workforce, lack of public respect for science, and a devastating brain drain in the early 1990s that saw more than 80,000 researchers leave the country in search of better conditions, mostly in western Europe.
The average age for a member of the Russian Academy of Science (RAS) is over 50, and the prestige of a field that gave birth to Sputnik has plummeted. Just 1 percent of Russians polled in 2006 named science as a prestigious career.
The Thomson Reuters report indicates an almost across-the-board decrease, which reflects Russia's shrinking influence not only in science but in knowledge-based industries such as nuclear power.
"Russia's research base has a problem, and it shows little sign of a solution … Russia has been a leader in scientific research and intellectual thinking across Europe and the world for so long that it comes not only as a surprise but a shock to see that it has a small and dwindling share of world activity as well as real attrition of its core strengths."
A New Partner
Furthermore, the report found that the United States, the world leader in scientific research, has displaced Germany as the top collaborator with Russian researchers.
"The opportunities for other countries to link to Russia's institutions of learning must be extensive… The gains for partners are likely to be significant, based simply on Russia's historical contributions. But partners may need to bring resources to the party to enable Russia to participate … By one 2007 account, a few of the best Russian research institutes have budgets for research amounting to 3-5 percent of comparably sized institutes in the United States," the report said.
In October, more than 170 expatriate Russian scientists signed a letter to President Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, complaining about "the catastrophic conditions of fundamental science."
"While other countries have increased their research output, Russia has struggled to maintain its output and even slipped backwards in areas like physics and space science, historically its core strengths," said Jonathan Adams, director of research evaluation at Thomson Reuters, parent company of Reuters.
Rankings Matter
The release of the Thomson Reuters document coincided with an article in International Higher Education, the journal of the Boston College Centre for International Higher Education, reporting that Russia's poor showing in world university rankings had "stimulated a critical analysis of the current state of higher education and research" in the country.
According to Anna Smolentseva, a senior research fellow at Moscow State University's Institute for Educational Studies, measures have been introduced to help build world-class institutions, including a scheme to designate some as "national research universities" meriting extra funding and autonomy.
But, she adds: "In Russia, practices of academic freedom, peer review and transparency in decision-making and competitions are still insufficient, and such a cultural component might become an obstacle in a search for excellence."
Towards A Brand New System?
In his speech delivered on the occasion of Russian Science Day while handing out prizes to young researchers President Dmitry Medvedev made a pledge to provide housing for all young scientists in the RAS institutes. The country has, he said, been engaged in an effort to provide housing for all military service personnel, a project that will be completed this year. Medvedev says the government will draft an agreement with the RAS to provide young researchers with housing by 1 May. He didn't mention a completion date for this task.
According to a science blog, there were indications in the president's speech that his leadership is beginning to recognize the importance of science:
“We admit we are still only at the start of the road towards rebuilding our science and moving to a new quality of regulation in this sector. No matter how much pride we take in the USSR’s achievements, we all know full well, especially the older generation, that these advances were made in conditions that, while presenting certain advantages, also had some serious shortcomings.
We live in a different world now. The country has changed, the economy has changed, and the world has changed too. Our task therefore is not to recreate a copy of the Soviet system for managing science, but to create a system for the scientific Russia today, a system of incentives and support, regulation, and legal protection for intellectual property, based on international standards. We therefore must set up a brand new system of our own.”
Russia has had major achievements in scientific research before and after the Bolshevik Revolution. The situation, however, changed radically following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
According to a Thomson Reuters report released on 26 January, based on the papers published in journals indexed by Thomson Reuters over 5 years, Russia now ranks behind such countries as China (415,000 papers, 8.4 percent of the world total), Canada (4.7 percent), Australia (3.0 percent), India (144,000 papers, 2.9 percent), and only slightly ahead of the Netherlands (2.5 percent) and Brazil (102,000 papers, 2.1 percent).
The report blames chronic underfunding by the Russian government, an aging scientific workforce, lack of public respect for science, and a devastating brain drain in the early 1990s that saw more than 80,000 researchers leave the country in search of better conditions, mostly in western Europe.
The average age for a member of the Russian Academy of Science (RAS) is over 50, and the prestige of a field that gave birth to Sputnik has plummeted. Just 1 percent of Russians polled in 2006 named science as a prestigious career.
The Thomson Reuters report indicates an almost across-the-board decrease, which reflects Russia's shrinking influence not only in science but in knowledge-based industries such as nuclear power.
"Russia's research base has a problem, and it shows little sign of a solution … Russia has been a leader in scientific research and intellectual thinking across Europe and the world for so long that it comes not only as a surprise but a shock to see that it has a small and dwindling share of world activity as well as real attrition of its core strengths."
A New Partner
Furthermore, the report found that the United States, the world leader in scientific research, has displaced Germany as the top collaborator with Russian researchers.
"The opportunities for other countries to link to Russia's institutions of learning must be extensive… The gains for partners are likely to be significant, based simply on Russia's historical contributions. But partners may need to bring resources to the party to enable Russia to participate … By one 2007 account, a few of the best Russian research institutes have budgets for research amounting to 3-5 percent of comparably sized institutes in the United States," the report said.
In October, more than 170 expatriate Russian scientists signed a letter to President Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, complaining about "the catastrophic conditions of fundamental science."
"While other countries have increased their research output, Russia has struggled to maintain its output and even slipped backwards in areas like physics and space science, historically its core strengths," said Jonathan Adams, director of research evaluation at Thomson Reuters, parent company of Reuters.
Rankings Matter
The release of the Thomson Reuters document coincided with an article in International Higher Education, the journal of the Boston College Centre for International Higher Education, reporting that Russia's poor showing in world university rankings had "stimulated a critical analysis of the current state of higher education and research" in the country.
According to Anna Smolentseva, a senior research fellow at Moscow State University's Institute for Educational Studies, measures have been introduced to help build world-class institutions, including a scheme to designate some as "national research universities" meriting extra funding and autonomy.
But, she adds: "In Russia, practices of academic freedom, peer review and transparency in decision-making and competitions are still insufficient, and such a cultural component might become an obstacle in a search for excellence."
Towards A Brand New System?
In his speech delivered on the occasion of Russian Science Day while handing out prizes to young researchers President Dmitry Medvedev made a pledge to provide housing for all young scientists in the RAS institutes. The country has, he said, been engaged in an effort to provide housing for all military service personnel, a project that will be completed this year. Medvedev says the government will draft an agreement with the RAS to provide young researchers with housing by 1 May. He didn't mention a completion date for this task.
According to a science blog, there were indications in the president's speech that his leadership is beginning to recognize the importance of science:
“We admit we are still only at the start of the road towards rebuilding our science and moving to a new quality of regulation in this sector. No matter how much pride we take in the USSR’s achievements, we all know full well, especially the older generation, that these advances were made in conditions that, while presenting certain advantages, also had some serious shortcomings.
We live in a different world now. The country has changed, the economy has changed, and the world has changed too. Our task therefore is not to recreate a copy of the Soviet system for managing science, but to create a system for the scientific Russia today, a system of incentives and support, regulation, and legal protection for intellectual property, based on international standards. We therefore must set up a brand new system of our own.”
