Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was urging scientists to do more to introduce innovations in the economy yesterday. Addressing a General Meeting of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) the prime minister advised scientists to engage less in criticism of the government and instead think more about how to harness advanced thought to improve the economy and life. He also promised new cheap apartments to scientists.
The academicians had discussed their problems and achievements since yesterday morning. By the time the prime minister got to the RAS building their discussion had covered such issues as the performance of the Academy's departments, the media attacks on the Academy, the funding system and the lamentable fact that the approach to science is currently strictly utilitarian, with research for the sake of research taking a back seat.
Vladimir Putin, who arrived about noon, steered the conversation in a practical direction. Right off, he began talking about innovation. The previous day, the prime minister made the same pitch to big business (Izvestia reported it in its previous issue). Now it was science's turn.
"Needless to say, the RAS and the nation's scientific advances cannot be separate from the work on the modernisation agenda. Our plans are absolutely transparent. We are talking about creating a competitive nucleus in domestic science, about support for strong and viable scientific institutions, and the concentration of resources in priority areas," the prime minister told those present. "But we are all very well aware that what worries us all is the question of efficiency."
How the state and the economy respond to new scientific developments has been a problem for Russia, and indeed for many other countries. This is nothing new. Putin at one time had the opportunity to find this out at his own cost.
"When I served with another agency, in my pervious life, there came a time in the late 1980s when our developments and those obtained from abroad were not introduced into the Soviet economy. Even the equipment needed to introduce them was lacking. So we worked and worked trying to obtain more economic information but to no avail. We kept asking: 'Where is it? Where in the economy are these developments?' There were none, it was impossible to apply them."
The moral of this tale for all those present was supposed to be that before criticising scientists one should consider the opportunities for putting their results to practical use today.
"You are right, it costs money," the prime minister responded to complaints that fundamental research is under funded. "But Grisha Perelman, whom you all know, just published his work on the internet at no cost... This is not to say that research should be left to chance, on the contrary, support is needed. We are trying to do just that."
This year the government has earmarked a hefty 1.1 trillion roubles for fundamental and applied science, higher education and innovative programmes, according to Vladimir Putin. That amounts to no less than 10% of the Federal Budget. A further 3 billion roubles are to be allocated to support the projects that will be implemented jointly by leading research organisations and education institutions, and another 39 billion roubles will be spent to attract quality specialists to Russian higher education institutions.
"It is important to concentrate our resources in the main, breakthrough areas and not to spread the butter too thin over the bread," the prime minister said.
However, scientists were at least as much concerned about the eternal "housing problem" as about the funding of new developments. The prime minister had a ready answer to that question too.
"I think one effective way of solving this problem is to assign plots of land to the jurisdiction of the Academy of Sciences for housing development. Especially since the Academy currently owns 330,000 hectares of land," he said.
The government has already given orders to study the issue and submit the relevant amendments to the law. The law would require developers to sell a certain percent of new apartments to Academy employees at low, affordable prices, at about 30,000 roubles per square metre.
By Anastasia Savinykh