Carte blanche
The government implements State Science-2 project (gosnauka-2).
In the middle of January, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin held a meeting at his residence in Novo-Ogaryovo that was historical in its own right. The meeting was devoted to the future of the Russian science. The well-known Kurchatov Institute, or, to be more precise, the establishment of Russia’s first national research centre to be based upon it, topped the agenda. But in fact, no one apart from those who hold special interest in this project understood that the meeting was groundbreaking.
At the meeting, Mr Putin underlined the importance of the initiative taken confirming that the new research centre would be directly subordinate to the government and hence, financed from the federal budget. He also said that the Kurchatov Institute would serve as a model for organizing all national research centres and that the government was planning to set up from five to seven such centres. But if these centres have the budget equal to that of the Kurchatov Institute, the financing of the Russian Academy of Sciences would be blocked.
The government has allocated an additional 10bln Rbs ($341mln) for implementing this project in the next three years. This is in addition to those 2.5bln Rbs ($85.5mln) that have already been allotted from the budget to the Kurchatov Institute for 2010. And it was emphasized that the money was given for implementing particular programmes and its spending would be subject to control. Therefore, the government assigns money and tasks, and if the funds are not sufficient, the government will give more, but the tasks must be accomplished and a report on how the funds were used must be submitted as well.
The tasks set before the Kurchatov Institute are colossal. Director of the Kurchatov Institute Mikhail Kovalchuk described them as “megascience,” or the science of using large and very expensive equipment.
Everything looks quite reasonable and promising thus far. In fact, a new academy of sciences, or State Science-2 has been created on the basis of the Kurchatov Institute. The existing Academy was not designed for such tasks. Structurally it cannot become subordinated to the government in one day. More of its equipment is outdated, it works inefficiently and is not prone to reforming, and though it has been reformed for almost 20 years, it continues to operate in the same way. The mega-science industry has already started to yield results, though it is still very young.
Last December, employees of the Kurchatov Institute declared they had fully decoded the genome of a Russian person. It took them only half a year to carry out the experiment, and they spent far less money than their Western counterparts, using nanotechnology to read the genetic information. However, geneticists who were not involved in the project described this achievement as gibberish and Neo-Lysenkoism. According to them, it is impossible to trace the peculiarities of the national genome due to its individual features. There is, of course, reason to speculate on the envy of the project’s detractors.
The academics are not just in panic, they are simply shocked—at least those who were interviewed by of Nezavisimaya Gazeta. Unfortunately, the names of those involved cannot be divulged. Shortly after Nezavisimaya Gazeta’s article about the Kurchatov Institute and its acquisition of three other institutes appeared in the press (see NG, 28.10.09), one respectable scientist was fired for speaking to the press. So you should think twice before quoting a person.
However, the scientists interviewed by Nezavisimaya Gazeta believe that the situation is critical. They think that Russian science is facing major setbacks, and the problem is not only that the old Academy is being gradually destroyed and a new state structure parallel to it is being created. They believe that Russia does not need science at all: the Soviet Union used it for defense purposes at least and now there is no need for it, while an era of new Lysenkos, who make extravagant promises to the state and spare lots of money on their own research, has begun.
It is difficult to say whether they are right or not. We hope that things are not so dire, because huge funds are allocated to acting institutes and acting programmes. In particular, the completion of the high-flux PIK reactor of the Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute (PNPI) has been well financed. The reactor has been under construction since 1978, but still remains the world’s best and supersedes all existing analogues.
Besides, a multitude of options may arise, following the course of 1991. At the time, Russian Academy of Sciences, an academy parallel to the USSR Academy of Sciences was created as well. The event aroused many debates and indignations. But nevertheless, the academy was opened, the personnel was recruited, and when the USSR started to collapse, it was merged with the USSR Academy of Sciences and was called the Russian Academy of Sciences, headed by Yury Osipov. History is always going in circles, and we may see something similar unfold in the future.
Vladimir Pokrovsky
