Izvestia (Moscow): “Scientific approach to budget funds”
State-run science and research support funds will receive 11 billion roubles in 2011. At a meeting of the Government Commission on High Technology and Innovation in Zelenograd, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin explained what this money will be spent on.
The responsibility for scientific advances rests personally with Vladimir Putin because he leads the Government Commission on High Technology and Innovation. Yesterday's meeting of the commission focused on the efficiency of state-run scientific and research foundations. Russia has three of them, the Russian Basic Research Foundation, the Foundation for Humanities Research, and the Development Foundation for Small Businesses in the R&D Sector.
The last one, for example, helped develop space surveillance cameras. The cameras can identify a camouflaged tent hidden in a forest from a near-earth orbit. The common looking USB flash drives and CDs lying on the table turned out to be storage for top secret data. This foundation's technology enables encrypting a storage device in such a way that only a specific person on a specific PC will be able to read the recorded data. British officials who tend to forget their laptops in taxi cabs would certainly be interested in this technology.
The prime minister was also shown another device designed hot on the heels of recent events, literally. After the tragic death of Moscow fire fighting commander Yevgeny Chernyshyov on March 20, 2010, scientists designed a rescuer radio tag. If a person remains still for more than 30 seconds, the tag will wake the person and then send an emergency signal to the command vehicle. A similar device is used in hospitals, and sends a signal to the nurses' station.
Russian researchers have also designed a "home" defibrillator which would allow anyone to restart a person's heart. Sensors are attached to the person's body and then a computer analyses the heart rate and sends the necessary charge automatically. The designers say this device could be practical in any car first-aid kit or at any country house. Nevertheless, this device will only be exported. Russian legislation does not allow people without medical training to attend to another's heart problems.
"This work is generally going well," Vladimir Putin said. "These foundations should not become mini-ministries, nor should they duplicate the efforts of government scientific bodies or academies. They shouldn't operate like a government agency. They shouldn't be afraid to do things differently. Their work should be guided by today's realities."
According to the prime minister, the cornerstones of these foundations should be publicity, transparency and accountability to the public. At least, these foundations do not have to worry about financing – 11 billion roubles will be set aside for them from the federal budget in 2011.
"This money should be spent reasonably and carefully on truly breakthrough research projects, on a variety of unique and original ideas," the prime minister advised the foundations' management. He went on with the following directions:
These institutions should work closely with those who apply for grants. Bureaucratic formalities should not impede the process. Researchers will need to understand how their applications will be evaluated. There should not be even the slightest cause for researchers to allege that the grants are awarded only to projects submitted by people who are close to the foundation. The application evaluations need to be independently reviewed. The foundations will have to post applications and projects that have been awarded grants online and also the reviews of all the applications submitted.
Anastasia Savinykh
