http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/science-at-crossroads-medvedev-told/389323.html
Science at Crossroads, Medvedev Told 12 November 2009 By Alexander Bratersky Top scientists will be watching President Dmitry Medvedev's state-of-the-nation address Thursday to hear how he intends to rescue the country's scientific community as part of his ambitious plan to modernize the economy. Russian science is at the brink of collapse, but it represents Medvedev's only hope of ending the economy's dependence on energy resources through modernization, scientists said. With many scientists aged over 50, the Kremlin has only a window of a few years to revive what's left of a community that won acclaim for its huge scientific advances in Soviet times, the scientists said. "If we don't take a closer look at science, we will lose everything that is left - and there is not much left," said Dmitry Badovsky, a scientist at Moscow State University's Institute of Social Systems and a member of the Public Chamber. But scientists are hopeful that Medvedev's state-of-the-nation speech, which will focus on modernization, will put their plight in the spotlight and lead to change. Medvedev has said his speech will be based on his September article titled "Go, Russia!" - which calls for Russia to be turned into an innovative power with "a smart economy producing unique scientific knowledge and exporting new technology." "Questions about why we need science at all and how we can become competitive have not been discussed at the political level for a long time," Badovsky said. Once considered a prestigious career path, science has fallen to new lows in recent years. Only 1 percent of 1,600 respondents named science as a prestigious career in a VTsIOM poll in 2006. A more recent survey, conducted by the Higher School of Economics in June, found that most students want to become executives at state gas giant Gazprom or work in the Kremlin. Of the top-30 places to work, not one of the more than 900 students surveyed named a scientific research institution. One big reason that science is shunned is because of a lack of money, said Yelena Daineko, a state award-winning biologist. "When the state gives money to science, it should also take control over it and not to let it disappear somewhere," said Daineko, who recently joined 400 other members of the Russian Academy of Science in signing an open letter to Medvedev deploring the current state of science. The letter warns that Russia only has five to seven years left to train young, new scientists. "If young people are not brought into science during this period, plans to create an innovative economy can be forgotten," the letter says, adding that the average age of members of the Academy of Science is well over 50. Daineko said attracting young talent is near impossible with the government's monthly stipend of 5,000 rubles ($170) for students. "How can a young man survive with this money? He has no choice but to work nights unloading boxcars on a train," she told The Moscow Times. Daineko said she feels no satisfaction over the state awards that she has received for her work training future biologists because few are employed in Russia. "Why do I need those medals when many of my students are writing to me from abroad?" she said, bitterly. During the Soviet years, the state heavily invested in science, primarily physics and math, and the resulting breakthroughs were used in the military-industrial complex. Many scientists enjoyed privileges like their own cars and elite summer houses. Most scientific laboratories were connected to the defense industry. Nearly two decades have passed since the Soviet collapse, but the country still lives off the scientific and technological advances made from that time. New innovations are "mostly a repeat or a modification of someone else's ideas or achievements," said Vladimir Travkin, a mathematician and former researcher with the Academy of Science of Soviet Ukraine. Like many of his former colleagues, Travkin now works in Germany, where he said research facilities are more sophisticated than in Russia. Before moving to Germany, he spent 15 years at the University of California in Los Angeles. Travkin said he keeps in daily contact with former colleagues from Moscow and Kiev, but he plans to continue working in Germany because he sees few prospects in modern-day Russia. The amount of state and private money invested into science has swelled in comparison to the 1990s, when many scientific institutions suffered from a lack of state funding and scientists went to work in private businesses to make ends meet. Last year, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin promised more than 60 billion rubles ($2 billion) per year to the Russian Academy of Science, almost double the amount spent in 2007. In contrast, Harvard University's annual budget topped $3 billion in 2008. But Putin's spending plans have been derailed by the crisis, and the Russian Academy of Science will receive only 40 billion rubles ($1.4 billion) next year, said Alexander Nekipelov, the academy's vice president. "It's a pity, but we will cut financing for fundamental scientific programs," he said. Still, more money is not the most important thing. State appointees at the Academy of Science could misuse the funding because the aging academy members have little say over how the money is spent and few young professionals remain in the country who can be employed to carry out research, some scholars said. "The money will be taken by those who have acquired their positions, only because their far more talented colleagues have left abroad," Konstantin Sonin, an economics professor with the New Economic School/CEFIR, wrote on his LiveJournal blog recently. Forty scientists wrote an open letter to Medvedev last month that called for an increase in transparency in science, in addition to a boost in funding. Science is on the brink of a collapse, "which in the near future will lead to a total breakup between the generations of scientists and the disappearance of world-level science in Russia," says the letter, which was published in Vedomosti. The signees were mostly Russians working in Europe and the United States. Scientists who pursue a career in Russia despite the obstacles often rely on financing from private businesses, but such opportunities are limited. The biggest private donor is the Regional Public Foundation to Support Domestic Science, created in 2000 by the Russian Academy of Science and wealthy businessmen including Roman Abramovich, Oleg Deripaska and Alexander Mamut. Before the crisis, the foundation's annual budget amounted to up to $3 million, which it distributed to some 700 gifted scientists in monthly grants of $200 to $500, said foundation director Maxim Kogan. Only 500 scientists received grants this year because of the crisis, said another foundation official, Anton Padokhin. Many of the scientists' wealthy sponsors feel a certain obligation because they themselves were schooled in the sciences, said Yevgeny Satanovsky, a scientist and entrepreneur who heads the Institute of Middle Eastern Studies. "There is a certain sentimental interest in supporting science because there are many businessmen who have an academic background, and they feel obliged to support former colleagues," he said. For young people who have decided to stay in Russia instead of pursuing opportunities abroad, life as a scientist is a question of survival. "I am always trying to find ways to make money. But if you are working and writing your thesis at the same time, it is hard to achieve both goals," said Maxim, a 27-year-old researcher at Moscow State University's physics department. He asked that his last name not be published to avoid a possible conflict with his supervisors. Maxim earns 8,000 rubles ($280) a month working at the department and makes extra money as a private part-time tutor for fellow students. His department often receives grants from various state and private foundations, but Maxim said it was very difficult for him to tap into the financial flow. "If you merely want to buy a printer cartridge with grant money, you have to sign so many papers that it is easier to just buy it with your own money," he said.
