Yesterday Mr Putin visited Dubna, a science community in the Moscow suburbs, to have a first-hand look at real nanotechnology. The town lives a life of its own amidst pine trees – researchers ride bikes leisurely to work, invent atom smashers and discuss sophisticated subjects like neurons and protons. The town takes pride in its inventiveness and boasts unique equipment – an object of envy for any foreigner.
To begin with, researchers from the Joint Institute of Nuclear Research showed Putin the NICA collider that is now under construction. This is an accelerator designed to study elementary particles during a clash. Researchers said it will allow them to study matter at a new level and explore remote stars and galaxies.
They presented Putin with a piece of copper from the soon to be collider, inscribed with "NICA Collider."
The lab that the researchers showed Putin looks like a sci-fi movie set, and their descriptions sounded like a Chinese puzzle. The tour of the institute's facilities left only one question: why don't such incredible developments and achievements mean world leadership in these areas? The explanation is simple: the NICA project requires $300 million and the institute's budget is only $100 million...
The institute is respected all over the world. It is an international scientific center – Russian researchers work alongside their colleagues from 18 foreign countries. In Dubna, a town immortalised in the Mendeleyev Periodic Table as the 105th element "Dubnium," Putin conducted a meeting of the Government Commission on High Technology and Innovation.
Russia is planning to develop a mega science installation – a platform for research on state-of-the-art technology that is capable of making a global breakthrough in science. Roughly speaking, this is our response to the Large Hadron Collider that is being developed abroad with the participation of our scientists. Now the institute is selecting proposals that will form the foundation for this mega project.
Putin expressed the need to formulate selection criteria for these large projects which would include an estimate of prospective benefits for the nation in general and for the dividends they could yield from a government investment.
"Projects of this magnitude are not just about the prestige of the nation. They should help ...make breakthroughs into the future," he said.
"Such megaprojects tend to become central points that give rise to research clusters around them, a complete innovative infrastructure that is capable of transforming fundamental knowledge into new technology and innovative products ... Such megaprojects also help us deal with crucial staffing problems. Given the current mobility levels in science, it makes almost no sense to use administrative measures to fight the brain drain. The only surefire approach is to make Russia appealing to both Russian and foreign researchers, so that they can come here to fulfill their potential..." Putin explained.
Confirming his words, the Director of the Kurchatov Institute Mikhail Kovalchyuk said he receives phone calls from people asking him to use his influence to get research jobs for them or for friends.
The researchers speaking at the meeting didn't spare their audience any technical details as they stuck their scientific terms. Severstal CEO Alexei Mordashov admitted honestly that his education in engineering and economics didn't help him understand what they were talking about. The ministers and businessmen snorted in agreement.
Nigina Beroyeva