The main troubles of Russian innovations
Innovative deja vuNatalia Bykova, STRF.ru
The ninth Moscow International Salon of Innovations and Investments, which closed last Friday, in addition to the exhibition of thousands of developments from dozens of countries, will also be remembered for numerous discussions about the role of the state and science in building a bright innovative future.
A journalist also attended some events STRF.ru who, after everything he saw and heard, was finally convinced that, despite the desire of the state and the scientific community to calculate all the bumps and sharp turns of the "great innovative path", this path remains unpredictable.
The ninth Moscow International Salon of Innovations and Investments gathered in the new complex of the VVC, perhaps, all those who are more or less involved in the processes of building a new type of economy that are gaining momentum in the country. In the main exhibition pavilion there were booths with presentations of promising scientific developments, and in the halls where round tables and seminars on the most pressing issues of the innovation agenda were held, representatives of academic and university science, small business, heads of the Ministry of Education, Rosnauki, Rosobrazovanie and other government agencies debated. Many lamented that they did not have time to attend all the discussions, but as a person who looked into all the halls for at least an hour, I can say for sure that it was almost impossible to miss something important from the field of view here. No, not because there was nothing important, it's just that each of the thematic events dedicated, for example, to educational services, the creation of firms at organizations of science and education, the role of the Federal Target Program, and so on, was reduced to discussing the same very closely interrelated issues. And in vain the presenters tried to narrow the scope of their speeches, reminding that "the law on economic societies is being discussed in a neighboring audience, and anyone who wants can go there," the tone of the discussions was set by "the current situation in the scientific and technical complex of the state."
So, the main topics on the agenda of the salon discussions are how to attract personnel to science, how to better organize federal targeted programs, how to achieve efficiency measured in the number of competitive innovative products that have entered the market.
If we start to unwind this chain, then federal targeted programs should probably be recognized as the starting link. It is from them that R&D begins, backed up by good government funding, which means that they are attractive to young personnel and have every chance of developing into innovations, because, firstly, projects within the framework of the Federal Target Program initially plan to release a specific product and commercialize it, and secondly, appropriate indicators are laid. But, as everyone is well aware, the most impressive results of scientific targeted programs so far are reports of scientists on the work done, and articles in reputable and not very reputable scientific publications.
Why is this happening is a question that generates many other, no less important, questions, one of which, according to Gennady Shepelev, head of the Department of Programs and Projects of the Federal Agency for Science and Innovation, is the shortage of personnel for innovative business.
"It turns out that the research team is doing some kind of development, but there is no one to further promote it," Gennady Shepelev expressed his position. – At the exhibition, I went to the stand of the company, which was presented by a man of 65 years old, and asked who was engaged in marketing. It turned out that this elderly man, the director of the company, is engaged in it. Including… Then it immediately became clear to me that his business was hopeless. The director cannot physically perform the functions of a marketer. Do you know what his marketing plan is? Item #1: put up a stand at the exhibition. Item #2: lure the deputy minister to the stand. Point # 3: tell the deputy minister about your work so that he likes everything, and so on. And where are the sales? Does the director even know who needs his products? I won't name this organization, because I'm sure there are most of them at such exhibitions."
Another point of view, repeatedly voiced during the salon discussions, is the researcher's lack of a clear understanding of the goals of his work, which is manifested even at the stage of forming applications for lots of federal targeted programs. "It often happens that when preparing a contract, applicants pledge very large sums for the organization of production, and then it turns out that the main funds are needed for the purchase of equipment and materials for research. There are difficulties in adjusting and then agreeing on the amount of funding for different stages of work," concluded Elena Borisova, General Director of CJSC Metasynthesis Corporation, which monitors the results of federal targeted programs. – The problem is also that it is very difficult to get extra-budgetary funds for the implementation of projects, which was further aggravated during the crisis. In this regard, I would like to ask the customer to reduce the requirements for extra-budgetary co-financing."
Catch an innovative frameThere are two common points of view on the question of where personnel should come from in the innovative business: either from scientific institutions or from the so-called non-innovative business.
The second option is perhaps less likely, since, on the one hand, the promotion of high–tech products to the market is too specific an occupation that requires knowledge or at least understanding of a certain field of science and the nature of the relationships of people working in this field, on the other hand, no matter what PR is created for innovations, this type of activity is not yet it is quite attractive for young employees from non-scientific state and commercial organizations.
If you look at the first statistics on the Federal target program "Cadres", people quickly got their bearings: a lot of RECs were formed in 2008-2009, that is, just for funding. I would like to know what will happen at the end of the program
Recently, experts are increasingly inclined to believe that young people with experience in science, for example, yesterday's supervisors, heads of small research teams and research projects, are able to organize and adjust the work of an innovative enterprise. But there are not enough such young people in scientific organizations now either.
The Rosnauki and Rosobrazovanie program "Scientific and scientific-pedagogical personnel of innovative Russia", which started this year, is designed to partially solve this problem, according to which the state undertook to finance the activities of 450 scientific and educational centers (RECs) per year to implement projects in specific fields of science and technology. Despite the unfortunate financial and economic crisis and a 15% reduction in funding, the implementation of the plan is going according to plan, although there are some doubts about the results of this FTP. "The situation around the "personnel program" is quite nervous," said Gennady Shepelev. – This is due not only to the financial crisis and the fact that management bodies and working groups are still in the process of formation. The main question that the organizers are concerned about now is whether these people, whom we now stubbornly support, will remain in science, in the innovative business. If you look at the first statistics on the Federal target program "Cadres", our people quickly got their bearings: a lot of RECs were formed in 2008-2009, that is, just for funding. I would like to know what will happen at the end of the program..."
Mikhail Burtsev, a young researcher at the Institute of Applied Mathematics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, expressed an interesting position on this issue, convinced that the state should not so much attract young people as fight with the elderly. "I don't think there is an acute problem of a shortage of young personnel in science. On the contrary, many are happy to stay in laboratories, in departments, but there are no bids. I believe that the state should set an age limit for holding certain positions in research institutes and universities, just as in many European countries there are age restrictions for heads of departments," Mr. Burtsev said.
Colleagues in the discussion found many counterarguments to such harsh measures, which basically boiled down to the fact that the ratio of young and experienced is not yet in favor of the new generation, and when setting the age limit for holding certain positions, science will face an even more serious problem – there will simply be no one to work. It is possible to reduce employees in science only selectively, which is practiced within the framework of the PRND implementation project, but in this case the "critical indicator" is not the age, but the number of published articles in refereed journals.
Promote a small businessAnswering the question of what to do with the results of the funded federal target program and in general the scientific results obtained in institutes and universities, and where to "attach" the personnel who came out of scientific and educational centers, the experts agreed that it is necessary to develop a small innovative business, so that all problems can be solved at once.
Recall that in July, a law was adopted that allows organizations of science and education to establish economic societies for the introduction and subsequent commercialization of the results of intellectual activity without the consent of the state. At the same time, due to fears that it would be difficult for new firms to find co-founders-investors, institutes and universities were even allowed to transfer tangible property to the companies being created (it looked quite risky, yet not every day the state allows state property to be transferred to commercial organizations). But with a more thorough analysis of the draft law in relation to Russian reality, it turns out that the main risks lie not so much in the loss of state property, as in the complexity of the practical implementation of the scheme proposed in the law.
"In order to start implementing all this effectively, it is necessary to calculate the available resources," believes Mr. Shepelev. – How much free space do we have to accommodate small businesses? Yes, the Ministry of Economic Development supports the program of creating business incubators, but the incubator is suitable for an office, or for a small production of IT technologies, in which you can put a computer and work quietly. But it will be very difficult to install real production lines and equipment there, everything will have to be redesigned, broken, and appropriate permits obtained. In addition, many technologies, unfortunately, are fraught with harmful emissions, so if you are located, for example, at a university, and start cutting acrylic with a laser, you will be immediately kicked out. And around the biotech enterprise in general, according to environmental standards, there should be a sanitary zone with a length of 1 kilometer. Of course, the law is needed, but you should not flatter yourself with the hope that everything will work by itself, and then we will write off all the problems to this small innovative business."
Who and what should be done to ensure that universities and research institutes get not only a theoretical, but also a practical opportunity to create firms to promote their intellectual property, said one middle-aged representative of the scientific community: "First of all, we need to let these enterprises work, prohibit all tax, fire, environmental services from checking them. Let's open all the taps to innovative firms, and let them develop, because the adopted law makes them completely defenseless."
But, most likely, such an initiative was expressed more out of surging emotions and despair caused by the fact that even programs and strategies backed up with big money do not guarantee solutions to all "innovative" problems. The recommendation "to disregard already existing laws, including safety standards" did not inspire the participants of the discussion.
Dmitry Shaposhnikov, the head of the Department of Innovative Development of the Department of Scientific and Innovative Activity of Kazan State University, also "wrote out" his recipe for the development of the processes of commercialization of scientific developments to the state: "The Institute conducts some research, gets a result that is recognized as positive, after which, for example, the Ministry of Education and Science announces a competition among existing manufacturers for the commercialization of this development with partial financial support from the state".
Representatives of Rosnauki replied that no one would come to such contests, since the industry is not interested in "abstract" developments. Each enterprise has its own tasks, its own development strategy, production lines, machines, plans for the release and modernization of products, for the development of markets. Hardly anyone will undertake to rebuild all this under one new technology with very illusory prospects for payback. "You can't do development, and then look for a consumer for it. It is better to first agree who might need it, and then ask for money," Mr. Shepelev did not spare the scientists. – We have programs that finance research under business guarantees. The problem is that the participants of other programs, for example, the same Federal Target Program "Cadres", in their research and educational centers also think about this. We studied this issue and came to the conclusion that some participants in targeted programs see further application of their developments, but mostly in academic institutions believe that it is necessary to simply give more money to science, and then something will sprout somewhere. However, practice shows that stagnation occurs after the completion of such projects."
Produce equipmentIn the course of the discussion, other pitfalls were also revealed, which small innovative firms that have embarked on an open commercial voyage may have to face.
One of these "stones" is the underdevelopment of the domestic market of industrial equipment, which would support, for example, the introduction of biotechnologies. In general, according to the experts of the Metasynthesis Corporation, in order to eliminate the dependence of Russian medical and biotechnological enterprises on the import of expensive equipment, an order for R&D with a total cost of 30 billion rubles is needed.
Moreover, if we look even further ahead, the presence of a developed network of small innovative enterprises can only partially cover the internal needs of the state for innovations, but it cannot establish the export of innovations, which would provide good revenues to the budget from export duties of high-tech products and, finally, would cure Russia of the complex of a raw power. On the world market, where each niche has its dominant in the person of some industrial giant, only very large enterprises can break through, with which the "kids" in principle cannot compete. So, to all other problems, in the future, another one will be added – the introduction to the "innovation culture" of large unwieldy firms and corporations.
In general, at the end of all the salon discussions, I came to the following conclusion: in Russia, there is an intensive formation of individual links of the innovation economy, but it is difficult to put together a whole system of these parts even theoretically. In order to more clearly represent the course and consequences of present and future reforms, Dmitry Kavtaradze, head of the laboratory of Lomonosov Moscow State University, invited representatives of Rosnauki, state academies of Sciences, universities to simulate the development of specific "innovative" situations in the process of business games. The participants of the salon were not too inspired by the idea. And I liked her. I remembered how at a recent meeting of German and Moscow entrepreneurs in the Government of Moscow, business representatives of the Württemberg Federal State of Germany talked about how, before launching any new enterprise, they first model the production process, industrial relations, and possible external conflicts, and then they start real work. Translated into Russian – they train on cats. As a result, what they have is not a car, then a Mercedes or, in extreme cases, an Opel. If we go back to the Russian soil and the IX Moscow International Salon of Innovations and Investments, in the process of discussing the same law on the establishment of firms at organizations of science and education, perhaps, just lacked an approximate model of the practical implementation of the law, projected by the joint efforts of officials, technology developers, potential investors, directors, ordinary employees of future innovative enterprises, property appraisers, tax, environmental services, etc. There is a feeling that not a single participant in these processes has a clear understanding of the necessary line of behavior and the common goal for which innovative reforms are being carried out.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru02.09.2009