Everything you want to know about R&D in Russia...

Through the mouth of UNESCO about Russian science
Ivan Sterligov, STRF.ru

Three important series of consolidated publications on science and technology policy are published in the world: Science & Engineering Indicators of the American National Science Foundation, Main Science & Technology Indicators of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and UNESCO Science Report. The UNESCO report is published with less frequency and compares favorably with the NSF and OECD documents by the presence of expert reviews on key countries and regions. The latest UNESCO Science Report 2010 (pdf, 9 MB) was published last month. We offer you to get acquainted with the main provisions of the chapter devoted to Russia.

The leading scientists of the world have joined together to work on the report. The introductory speech was written by Luc Soete and his students, and the chapter on Russia belongs to Leonid Gokhberg and Tatiana Kuznetsova from the Higher School of Economics. They cover almost everything: from financing to international cooperation and the ministerial reform of the university sector. The emphasis is on statistics. Here are the key figures and conclusions.

FinancingTotal R&D expenses in Russia in 1998-2008 in constant prices almost doubled.

This growth is one of the fastest in the world. However, it has not yet been possible to reach the level of spending in 1990, in 2008 more than twice as much was spent on science as before the collapse of the USSR. The share of GDP going to R&D has also fallen (1.03 percent in 2008 versus 1.43 percent in 1991).

In 2005-2008, federal budget expenditures on civil science increased by a third, with 40 percent of budget money spent on basic science. Competitive allocations through targeted programs have also increased significantly.

As a result, the salaries of those employed in R&D have increased: now they are 8.5 percent higher than in the country as a whole. However, the amount of funding per researcher is still several times lower than in more developed countries. In terms of total investment in science, we are two times behind France and six times behind Japan, if we count purchasing power parity.

There has been practically no improvement in the financing structure in recent years. The demand for R&D mainly comes from the state, which pays for research and development (65 percent of total spending on science in 2008). At the same time, the main amount of these funds is mastered in the entrepreneurial, not the academic sector (that is, in the former branch of science with its Design Bureau and Research Institute).

"Our analysis shows that if there are no effective government initiatives to increase the demand of private companies for R&D, growing public funding can increasingly replace business money, rather than supplement it," the authors warn.

PersonnelIn 2008, there were 761,300 people employed in the R&D sector in Russia, which is 1.3 percent of the total workforce.

Half of those employed are researchers, and more than 70 percent of them do not have scientific degrees. In terms of the number of researchers, we lag behind only the USA, Japan and China.

In 2002-2008, there was a steady increase in the number of two age groups: under 30 years (+18 percent) and over 69 years (twice). The 40-49 age group, on the contrary, decreased by 58 percent. 40 percent of all researchers have already crossed the threshold of retirement age. The average age of researchers in 2008 was 9 years higher than those employed in the economy as a whole.

University sectorThe system of higher education institutions is steadily expanding in Russia.

As of 2008, there were 1,134 universities in the country, 660 of them were state-owned. 53 percent of them are "universities", 25 percent are "academies" and 22 percent are "institutes". The proportion of people with higher education is gradually increasing: according to the 2002 census, there were 16 percent of such people compared to 11.3 percent in 1989.

At the same time, 4.5 percent of students are engaged in natural and exact sciences, another 18.6 percent are mastering engineering specialties. 32.5 percent plan to receive diplomas of economists and managers.

The Russian Federation joined the Bologna Process only in 2003, so more than 90 percent of today's students study for specialists and only 1 percent for masters.

The qualification of teachers has significantly increased. At the beginning of 2009, the number of doctors of sciences in the higher education system (together with part-timers) reached 42,100, or 12.3 percent of the teaching staff.

In 2008, graduate schools existed in 1529 organizations, 718 of them were universities, the rest were research institutes. At the same time, in 2000-2008, the share of graduate students who successfully defended on time at the Research Institute fell from 23 percent to 15 percent (from 30 to 26% in the country as a whole).

The authors highlight the following characteristics of the Russian postgraduate school:

• falling dissertation quality standards;
• excessive formalization with a lack of objective peer-review;
• low transparency of dissertation councils in a number of universities and research institutes.

Experts' conclusion: the state of the system of training scientific personnel is not combined with the authorities' attitudes to the innovative development of the country.

The main problems of the Russian R&D sector1. Insufficient support for research in universities

Universities account for only 6.7 percent of R&D spending, and this figure has been stable for two decades. Only one of the three universities (or universities – it is unclear from the context – I.S.) carries out R&D; in 1995 there were more than 50 percent of them. Universities account for 7.7 percent of all Russian researchers.

Expanding support for university science has become a key priority of the state scientific policy in recent years. Within the framework of the national project "Education", 57 so-called "innovative universities" selected by the competition received $ 30 million each for their development programs. Then commensurate funds were allocated to 29 "national innovative universities". Additionally, a wide range of scientists and students were able to win project financing in open competitions within the framework of the Federal Target Program "Scientific and scientific-pedagogical personnel". "All these support programs will continue, regardless of any financial difficulties," the HSE experts are sure.

2. Contradictions of state policy

Despite the positive changes observed, Russian science is still largely organized according to the Soviet model:

• the size of the sector is quite large, given its productivity. Vertical leadership and government funding are maintained. These traits are unsuitable for a market economy;
• there is a "striking imbalance" between the productivity of R&D and the growing amounts of financial resources allocated for this;
• structural indicators show that the institutional model of the organization of science and technology creates a lot of barriers between R&D, industry and education. However, the sector will not be able to initiate reforms dictated by life itself as long as "it is under the government yoke" (under the yoke of government).

Although the structure of the R&D network remains generally unchanged, organizations engaged in research and development are sensitive to the level of demand. In 2000-2005, their number decreased by 13 percent, and in 2005-2007 – increased by 11 percent.

Productivity of the R&D sectorThe disadvantages of the configuration of the research sector result in its low productivity.

In 2008, Russian authors published 27,300 scientific articles in the journals of the Web of Science database, ranking 14th in the world. In 1980, the USSR was in third place in this indicator.

Despite the rather significant patent activity (about 42 thousand patents per year, the 6th place in the world), the number of licensing agreements remains low: only 5-6 percent of the annual number of new patents. This is due to the low demand of enterprises and the low competitiveness of Russian developments, especially in the civil sphere.

The annual export of high-tech products is about $ 800 million. The authors cite Hungary ($2.5 billion) and the United States ($85.9 billion) for comparison. Finally, the most famous figure: the share of enterprises introducing innovations in the Russian Federation is 9-10 percent, in Hungary – 20 percent, and in Germany – 63 percent.

Leonid Gokhberg and Tatiana Kuznetsova focus on a number of issues in which they themselves often act as consultants to the government and state corporations: foresight research, evaluation of the effectiveness of scientific organizations, intellectual property, RVC and Rusnano, tax benefits.

The conclusion states that the Russian government acts in general in line with the global scientific policy, funding priorities and establishing indirect innovation incentives. "All the required transformational processes have undoubtedly been put into action, but a great involvement of all participants in these processes is required" – this is perhaps the main conclusion of the authors.

Despite the depressing statistics, the report does not contain direct criticism of certain decisions of the authorities, financing and management practices. For example, nothing is said about the opacity of the choice of the Kurchatov Institute as a pilot national research center, about the imperfection of the procedures of ministerial public procurement, about the stagnation of the RFBR. I know that HSE experts have their own critical opinion on all these issues, however, due to their involvement in the consulting services of the government, they are not able to express it openly and sharply.

Nevertheless, the chapter from the UNESCO report today is perhaps the best brief overview of the Russian R&D sector and its problems, supported by a solid statistical base.

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06.12.2010