Vladimir Putin continues sweeping science reforms

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has finally approved a package of measures aimed at improving the national higher education and science system. Among them are introducing a new competitive research grants system, and boosting funding and researcher salaries.

The measures were proposed recently by the Presidential Council for Science and Education.

According to the Kremlin press service, one of the main measures to be implemented will be ending the current practice of funding fundamental and exploratory research - conducted in both universities and research institutes - from the federal budget.

Instead, a grant scheme will be created. According to the government, this will significantly reduce the bureaucratic burden on scientists and science organisations.

It is planned that the grants will be disbursed by specially established endowment funds, after consideration of applications by the Presidential Council for Science and Education and other state commissions in the field of science. There is a possibility that some of the funds will be set up within the structures of Russia's leading universities.

Part of the funding for developing fundamental science will be from the Russian Scientific Fund, with the budget estimated to be RUB48 billion (US$1.5 billion). Funding of the existing Russian Fund for Basic Research and Russian Humanitarian Scientific Foundation will be trebled by 2020.

Struggle to shift to innovation

Andrei Fursenko, assistant to the president and former minister of education and science, will be in charge of implementing the plans. He said that despite considerable efforts, Russia had been unable to shift to an innovation economy.

"There is still a gap between science and the economy, which resulted in weak impact of scientific and technological developments on the socio-economic development of the country, which in turn led to a drop in interest in science among business and the public."

Fursenko said that the government had actually invested too much money from the federal budget, not only in basic science but also in research and development activities.

"The achieved results were inadequate to the invested efforts and funds, which means that there is a need to design new ways and schemes for funding Russian science and the national system of higher education."

Putin has also ordered the government, together with the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Russian Rectors' Union, to improve the mechanism for setting priorities for basic research, taking into account Russia's competitive advantages in various scientific fields and in accordance with issues of national security.

It is proposed that the priorities be approved by the Presidential Council for Science.

According to Fursenko, there are plans to set three priority directions for the development of fundamental research in Russian universities and the national Academy of Sciences, among which are expected to be nuclear energy, space and plasma physics.

All researchers will be expected to play a key role in Russia's economic development, creating new competitive products and knowledge in areas such as high-quality medicine, construction, communication, healthy food and preserving the environment.

Another priority will be acceleration of research and development activities in the field of national security.

Russian science will become more geographically diversified, to ensure its development in all regions of the country and not only Moscow and St Petersburg. Fursenko believes that the concentration of science in two cities is unacceptable - and even dangerous - for the country.

Among other new measures are simplification of the procedures for setting state targets in scientific fields, an increase in the salaries of certain categories of university professors and scientists who achieve good results, and more support for Russian academic journals.

Regarding talented young scientists, there are also plans to create additional jobs that will be offered after graduation with salaries comparable to those in Western countries.

The proposals also state that the heads of Russia's universities and scientific organisations should not be older than 65 years.

According to a representative of the Ministry of Education and Science, the current average age of leaders is rather high, and because of this, career development has been difficult. However, the government believes that imposing age restrictions should take place gradually.