Science to manage science
Israeli expert on the "big organization of Rusnano"IA REGNUM
"Only a very great attention of the state, which should invest in the development of science and technology, gives some positive effect," Professor Oleg Figovsky, member of the European Academy of Sciences, director of the International Research Center for Nanotechnology, President of the Israeli Association of Inventors, said in the capital of Chuvashia at the III Cheboksary Economic Forum.
According to him, such conclusions can be drawn from the experience of Israel, which today ranks first in the world in terms of the number of scientists per 10 thousand population, third in terms of the number of inventions in absolute terms and is a leader in bionanotechnology in medicine, the correspondent of IA REGNUM Novosti reports. "And it occupies a very high place in terms of how much the state invests in science and the economy. Israeli inventors continue to conquer the world market for these inventions, which suggests that the country's leading companies are very easily and very expensively sold abroad," the speaker said.
Continuing to argue his position, Oleg Figovsky noted that at one of the meetings dedicated to the development of science, the archbishop spoke, "who explained for 40 minutes that the main thing in Russian science is spirituality": "I absolutely agree that no one needs spiritual science. But the whole point is that after that I spoke, and as a representative of Israel I had to say that the main thing in science, forgive me, is funding. Whatever the high spirituality, but without the appropriate technological and scientific equipment, it is unlikely that anything can be done."
The Israeli expert stressed that another "very important question is how this business is managed" and gave an example that, in his opinion, "will show the difference in management efficiency." "You know that there is such a big organization – Rusnano. Honor and praise, it's good that it was created, wonderful. It now has about 700 employees. They recently reported on their grandiose successes," Oleg Figovsky began, noting that Rusnano has invested "so far some very small share of money in real production," as a result, according to various sources, from 3 to 8 real productions have been launched: "There is no real industry, there is only investing money and making a profit. But it's good, at least they didn't lose that money." And he said that there is also a kind of analogue of this organization in Israel: "It has existed for about the same time as Rusnano. So far, we have launched only 28 new nanotechnology production facilities during this period. But here's what's interesting, I ask everyone the question, how many people do you think work there? ... 1.5 people – a part-time executive director and a full-time coordinator engineer. And his salary is significantly lower than in Rusnano."
"I think this is very important, because when the state believes that the main thing is to disperse the bureaucracy, this is of little use," Oleg Figovsky said, also focusing on the fact that in Israel the process of allocating money takes about 1 month, while in Rusnano it takes about 1.5–2 years: "It's very hard to work like this. All these approvals, etc., they are very disturbing." The expert also said that Rusnano has been trying for a year and a half to sign an agreement with an Israeli organization dealing with nanotechnology: "But there is a very big problem: in order to work with Rusnano, you need to accept an additional person. We don't have extra people, so everything is at the approval stage."
Oleg Figovsky also drew attention to the fact that a "very interesting" system of state support was introduced in Israel for the first time: when the state gives 80% of funds to the project and "takes only 20% of shares for it": "Because it is important for the state to develop new technologies, then it will take it all in the form of taxes, etc. But the most interesting thing is not a bank loan. That is, if your project turned out to be unsuccessful, and the state invested, then you do not return anything. That is, the author has no risk."
The expert gave another example. According to him, during the next visit of the Rusnano delegation to Israel, one of the Russian academicians asked his colleagues at Tel Aviv University, "what is the use of university professors from building some factories", from the introduction of production. In particular, he was told that graduate students, for example, defend doctoral dissertations. "I must say that the nanotechnology center in Tel Aviv was the youngest at that time. And he was told that we are still very young, we have few results and only eight professors of our university who are engaged in nanotechnology have become millionaires as a result. Then somehow he felt very bad, because it was difficult to give an example of an academician who became a millionaire." "Each university has a separate technology development company, and it is not a structural unit, it is a separate company," Oleg Figovsky continued, noting that with the creation of new technologies, the university receives 20 percent, scientists, "naturally, more."
The expert also assured in his speech that there are "minimal consequences from the crisis" in Israel, since there are no mortgage loans here, "the country is not engaged in the sale of resources": "That is, we do not sell oil, gas. We don't have that. But high technology is always needed."
Oleg Figovsky in his report "The Science of managing science", speaking about the role of science in the development of civilization, stressed that Russia needs changes. In particular, he noted that the forecast prepared by the Institute of System Analysis of the Russian Academy of Sciences "traces the development of 160 areas of fundamental research... until 2010": "The institute does not try to understand what will happen after this milestone and how to manage science, provide it with resources." According to the scientist, the project activity is in particular need of reform, which today could not only ensure the implementation of many projects, but also replenish the budget of fundamental and applied sciences: "In Russia, the main obstacle is the lack of infrastructure. It cannot be said that nothing is being done – project registries, expert assessment systems, etc. are being created, but this is not enough."
The speaker stressed that there are many public and private foundations in the world that allocate grants for innovation: "Alas, this huge amount of money, sometimes spent inefficiently, has not yet reached Russia. At the same time, the situation is as follows: in Russia there are a lot of unclaimed projects, and in the West there are a lot of shadow companies engaged in the search for projects. If such a company finds a promising project, its value will increase thousands of times."
Figovsky emphasized that without the development of fundamental and applied science, Russia will not be able to get out of the systemic crisis. For the growth of scientific and technical potential, according to the expert, a high level of education is necessary, "despite the gap between 60-year-old professors and 25-year-old graduate students and the lack of modern textbooks": "Having bypassed many bookstores in Moscow and expressing bewilderment at the lack of modern, including translated, textbooks on physics biochemistry, molecular biology and other rapidly developing fields of science, the author was struck on the spot by the murderous response of "specialists": "Textbooks do not age!". I would like to remind you that education is not the sum of frozen knowledge, but the ability to quickly master new things." The second prerequisite is the presence of an "extensive Russian"intellectual ecumene"all over the world." According to Figovsky, for example, in Israel, technical growth is due "largely to immigrants from the USSR," that is, a small part of the intellectual potential that Russia has." And he expressed the opinion that this alone allows us to believe in a technological revolution in Russia in the coming years.
The third prerequisite is the own investment potential. "As you know, in terms of the number of billionaires, Russia has already reached the second place in the world, and millionaires in Moscow alone... But many of them have higher education and work experience in science," the expert noted.
Oleg Figovsky also stressed in conclusion that "the transformation of science into the basis of the country's economy and a genuine reform of science management are unthinkable without the continuous growing need for it by society itself."
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru25.06.2010