Russian Academy of Sciences
Ye Xiaoliang Source: "Eastern European and Central Asian Studies" Issue 1, 1995
The Russian Academy of Sciences (Soviet Academy of Sciences) is an institution with a history of nearly 270 years , a world-renowned large-scale scientific organization. It has a complete system of scientific institutions, a strong scientific team, and has achieved world-level achievements in many disciplines. At the end of 1991, due to the disintegration of the former Soviet Union, the academy was placed under Russia. Soon after, the merger was established Soon the Russian Academy of Sciences was organized as the Russian Academy of Sciences.
1. Overview of the Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences is the highest scientific institution in Russia and an all-Russian autonomous institution based on Russian law. Its main tasks are to engage in basic research in the main fields of natural sciences, technical sciences and social sciences, and to exercise overall academic leadership over the country's natural sciences and social sciences, especially basic research, including determining the main directions of basic research, Responsible for formulating national research plans for natural sciences and social sciences, coordinating the basic research work of various professional departments, professional science academies and universities. In addition, it also participates in the formulation and implementation of national special or comprehensive science and technology plans.
The highest organ of the Russian Academy of Sciences is the General Assembly, which is composed of formal academicians and corresponding academicians. During the recess of the General Assembly, the highest functional body is the Academy Presidium elected by the General Assembly. The Academy Presidium is composed of the following personnel: The dean, the first vice dean, and several vice deans (6 are respectively responsible for physical and technical issues in physics and mathematics, biology, chemistry, earth science, information science, computing technology, mechanical manufacturing, mechanical problems, control processes, and dynamics , deputy dean of humanities and social sciences; several deputy deans served by regional branch deans and heads of large science centers), academic secretary-general of the presidium, academician secretary and other members. The presidium consists of 18 academic departments. Namely : Department of Mathematics; Department of General Physics and Astronomy; Department of Nuclear Physics; Department of Physics and Technology of Dynamics; Department of Mechanical Manufacturing, Mechanics and Control Processes; Department of Informatics, Computing Technology and Autochemistry; Department of General Chemistry and Engineering Chemistry; Physical Chemistry and Department of Inorganic Materials Technology, Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Physiologically Active Compound Chemistry: Department of Biology; Department of General Biology; Department of Geology, Geophysics, Geochemistry and Mineralogy; Department of Oceanography, Atmospheric Physics and Science ; Department of History; Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Psychology and Law; Department of Economics; Department of World Economy and International Relations; Department of Literature and Linguistics.
The Academy of Sciences has three regional branches (Far Eastern Branch, Siberian Branch and Ural Branch) and several large scientific centers (St. Petersburg Science Center, Dagestan Science Center, Karelia Science Center and Kola Science Center, etc.), which are all under the direct jurisdiction of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences. In addition, the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences and various departments also have more than 300 scientific committees in various disciplines, whose members are from the Academy of Sciences, universities and colleges. It is composed of representatives of departmental scientific research institutions and academic authorities. In 1993, the Russian Academy of Sciences had 45 scientific research institutions. There are nearly 200,000 staff members, 437 formal academicians and 611 corresponding academicians.
2. Efforts to get out of the predicament
For the newly established Russian Academy of Sciences, the two and a half years since the end of 1991 have been an extremely difficult journey. Since the country is in the process of transitioning from a planned economy During the great transition period to a market economy, the economic situation was severe and inflation was intensifying, which put the Academy of Sciences under unprecedented pressure: the prices of scientific research test materials and instruments and equipment increased tenfold in a short period of time, scientific research expenditures increased sharply, and scientific research materials The basic level has declined rapidly, the working and living conditions of scientific researchers have continued to deteriorate, and a large number of talents have been lost. Faced with this situation, the presidium of the Academy of Sciences, which was appointed at the time of crisis, showed a high sense of social responsibility. They sized up the situation and formulated the work policy of the Academy of Sciences. It is clear that the Academy of Sciences, as the country's highest scientific institution and the main birthplace of basic scientific knowledge, its main task at the current stage is to ensure high-level basic research and make greater contributions to the country's escape from the socio-economic crisis; to maintain and develop scientific potential, especially It is to maintain and develop those scientific research units and schools that are world-class or enjoy authority in the international scientific community. To this end, the Presidium has creatively adopted a series of measures in scientific research management.
(1) Broaden funding sources The economic crisis has greatly reduced Russia’s scientific research budget. In 1990, Russia’s scientific research funding accounted for 5.6% of national income, while in 1992 this proportion accounted for It is less than 2%. The expenses allocated to the Russian Academy of Sciences (excluding regional branches) of the total national scientific research expenses account for about 10%. In 1992, the national budget allocation received by the Academy of Sciences was only enough to barely cover the minimum standards of staff salaries and After the substantial price increase, the cost of water, electricity, heating, rent and other municipal government equipment: the cost of purchasing instruments and equipment, reagents, materials, and organizing inspections only accounted for 3%, while in 1991 the proportion of this expenditure was 50%. Even so, the national budget expenses cannot be cashed in time. At the same time, the original main source of extra-budgetary funds of the Academy of Sciences, that is, obtaining funds through signing various economic contracts with institutions and enterprises in the industrial sector and the military industry sector, is also due to the above-mentioned units. Their respective funding has been drastically reduced and almost exhausted. In 1991, the Academy's own budget amounted to 1.4 billion rubles, while the cost of participation in external transversal activities amounted to 800 million rubles. There are several research institutions of the Academy of Sciences that have been making a living from the expenses of horizontal activities. Therefore, among the many problems encountered by the Academy of Sciences, the problem of funding shortage is the most serious.
While the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences is constantly asking the government, from the president to the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Science, to increase budget expenses, it is also trying to find ways to develop funding sources.
1. Actively participate in the formulation and implementation of various national science and technology plans. The Presidium of the Academy of Sciences calls on all departments, scientific committees, and scientific research institutions to actively participate in the formulation and implementation of various national science and technology plans to tide over the difficulties for the country. Make more contributions. In 1992, each institute of the Academy of Sciences received 2.4 billion rubles for completing various state planning tasks.
2. Locally oriented economic construction The Russian Academy of Sciences is working hard to explore ways to participate in local economic construction and expand the scope of cooperation with local governments. For example, the Academy of Sciences has nearly 130 scientific research institutions in Moscow with 30,000 scientific researchers, including 14,000 associate doctorates and 4,500 doctorates. The Academy of Sciences uses its strong scientific and technological advantages to cooperate with the Moscow City Government. In early 1993, the two sides jointly formulated two plans titled "Science Community Supports Moscow" and "Moscow Supports Science Community". The former plan is for the Academy of Sciences to focus on urban construction, power and power supply, industry and More than 60 scientific and technological achievements will be provided to the City of Moscow from 10 aspects including consumer market, transportation and communications, urban natural environment and government department management, and both parties will determine the project completer and the application enterprise of the scientific and technological achievements. According to the negotiation, the Moscow City will provide the Academy of Sciences with The unit pays 1.5 billion rubles; the latter plan provides for the city of Moscow to support the Academy of Sciences financially and materially, including for several institutions of the Academy of Sciences in Moscow, especially research institutes that are conducive to the cultural development of Moscow and the improvement of the ecological environment. In hydropower, These two plans not only provide the Academy with funding, but also create a new way for the Academy to commercialize and reproduce its scientific research results. This cooperation model is currently in progress. Promotion within the Academy of Sciences.
The Siberian Branch, the Ural Branch, and the Far Eastern Branch play a pivotal role in local economic construction.
3. The Russian Academy of Sciences draws fees from various domestic science and technology funds. Individual scientists or scientific research groups are encouraged to actively participate in project competitions for various science and technology funds. For example, under the active initiative and promotion of the Academy of Sciences, the government established the “Russian Arsenic Research Fund” in 1992. Scientists from various units of the Academy of Sciences competed for funds from this fund.
4. Strive for foreign funds. In the past two years, the Russian Academy of Sciences has worked hard to find opportunities to obtain funding from international agencies such as the United Nations and various foreign science foundations, such as it and the United Nations Educational Science and Technology. UNESCO has signed a contract to carry out basic research in Russia.
According to the agreement, UNESCO allocated US$300,000 to the Russian Academy of Sciences from 1992 to 1994 to expand the academy's international contacts and help it establish a computer integration research center; to allow some talented young scholars from the academy to Go to world-renowned scientific research centers for further studies; in the past two years, the Academy of Sciences has received considerable basic research funding only from the famous American entrepreneur and the International Science Foundation organized by Soros. In addition, the Academy of Sciences has established partnerships with the United States, Germany, France, and Europe* China, Japan, South Korea, etc. have carried out extensive international scientific and technological cooperation, which has also brought a lot of research expenses to the Academy of Sciences.
5. Patent protection of scientific research results. Every year, the Russian Academy of Sciences obtains considerable amounts of freely convertible foreign exchange from its patents registered abroad (the Academy of Sciences of the former Soviet Union maintained an 800-800 yuan foreign currency abroad in 199 years. 1000 patent rights). For example, the Academy of Sciences spent US$130,000 to obtain patent rights in 10 countries for three inventions of the II. Lebedev Institute of Physics, and the Academy of Sciences received US$12 million in funds from foreign companies under the agreement. However, in the past two years, Due to the lack of centralized foreign exchange funds, the Academy of Sciences has reduced the number of patents registered abroad. In order to promote the commercialization and export of scientific and technological achievements, the Academy of Sciences is embarking on a fundamental reform of its patent-license policy to make patents registered abroad x i }Able to form a stable source of foreign exchange.
6. Creation of the Bank of the Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences established the first Bank of the Academy of Sciences in 1991 as a tool for the Academy of Sciences to find supplementary funds to support basic research. The Academy of Sciences has stock control in the bank, and in Among the shareholders are the Russian Engineering Research Institute and a series of commercial, scientific and production companies. The Academy of Sciences hopes to use this bank to absorb more domestic and foreign funds and provide loans and investments for scientific research institutions and enterprises within the Academy.
7. Commissions from units within the academy. Some institutes, institutions and enterprises of the Russian Academy of Sciences rent out houses, sites and other properties as a source of income. However, many units do not have such conditions. Therefore, the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences decided to commission 20% from the rental income of these units as a subsidy for the academy's basic research, to develop international scientific and technological cooperation, and to solve the social security issues of Academy of Sciences staff.
8. Commercialization of scientific and technological talent training. Some people from the Russian Academy of Sciences believe that it is a very important task to use the Academy of Sciences’ postgraduate training system to train senior scientific and technological talents for various national professional ministries or the private sector and to commercialize training work. Promising supplementary funding sources.
(2) Adjust the organizational structure. The leaders of the Russian Academy of Sciences believe that the organizational model of the old Academy of Sciences cannot adapt to the new situation of the transition to a market economy and must be adjusted in time. The main aspects of adjustment are:
1. Streamline the institutions of the academy and strengthen the role of the departments. Based on the opinions of the plenary meeting of the academy, the Presidency of the Academy of Sciences streamlined the overly large and inefficient department management organization, and delegated part of the management functions of the academy to the departments. , strengthen the role of academic departments and give them legal person status. The main direction of the current work of the department is to support and develop promising basic and applied research and ensure the use of large-scale experimental equipment.
2. Cancel duplicate research institutions. The Academy of Sciences organized an expert appraisal committee to review all scientific research institutions in the academy. Research departments and topics with duplicate or outdated research content will be resolutely cancelled.
3. Establishing a joint research institute. The Russian Academy of Sciences is exploring a new organizational form that allows related research institutes in a certain "technical chain" to strengthen mutual cooperation - the establishment of a joint research institute. For example, based on the Institute of Geophysics , forming a joint institute with the Institute of Planetary Physics, the Institute of Experimental Geophysics, the Institute of Seismology, the Institute of Geomagnetics and a Geophysical Observatory
4. Establish teaching with universities. A scientific research consortium In the past two years, the Academy of Sciences and universities have carried out activities integrating scientific research and teaching, and have accumulated a lot of experience. Currently, quite a few research institutes and science centers have established teaching-scientific research consortiums with universities, and the two sides complement each other's advantages. Join forces to engage in scientific research and train high-level professionals. For example, in the famous Russian biology city-Pushino Science Center of the Academy of Sciences, a new teaching-scientific research-production complex was created based on the center and Pushino State University. .
5. The Siberian Branch of the Commercial-Production Department of the Founding Institute has made active attempts in this regard.
The development of commercial and production departments affiliated with the institute can create new jobs, reduce the loss of scientific research and engineering technical personnel, protect intellectual property rights, and increase income for the institute. The branch has formulated a series of documents related to the protection of intellectual property rights, the most important of which is the signing of agreements between the institute and developers and collective authors on patent rights issues. Two models of organizational management of business activities have emerged in each institute of the branch. One is the highly centralized management model adopted by the Institute of Nuclear Physics, and the other is the large-scale free operation model carried out by the Institute of Catalysis. Later, The investors also plan to establish a holding company. In 1993, the Academy of Sciences had established more than 500 such organizations, most of which were engaged in scientific production and promotion of results.
The Academy of Sciences even established a joint venture technology company in the United States with two powerful local companies for the purpose of developing and transferring Russian scientific and technological achievements.
6. Develop technology park areas. In recent years, with the active promotion of scientific research units of the Siberian Branch, some technology park areas are being formed around Novosibirsk Science City and other Siberian science centers. Active in these areas Some branches of scientific research units of branches, as well as enterprises and joint-stock companies jointly established by scientific research units and industry. Many of them are engaged in the development of scientific research results, product production and commercial activities. The Academy of Sciences believes that these comprehensive science cities and science centers in Siberia And their scientific research results are very suitable for the development of technology parks. At present, it is only necessary for the state to invest in some of these scientific research branches and large-scale projects, which can produce good economic benefits.
7. Establishing an International Science Center In 1992, the Russian Ministry of Science and the Russian Academy of Sciences jointly announced the establishment of the Baikal International Ecological Research Center and the Altai International Humanities and Biosphere Research Center on the basis of some research institutes of the Siberian branch. Research centers: Siberian Solar Geophysical Research Center, Siberian Landform Research Center and other three international scientific research centers, among which the Baikal International Ecological Research Center has 30 since 1988. More than a dozen foreign scientists have come here to conduct research. The center has received an investment of US$3.1 million from foreign units such as the University of Colorado in the United States, the Royal Society of the United Kingdom, and the Royal Academy of Belgium. These scientific centers are now becoming the strongest and most active units of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
(3) Changing the science and technology management mechanism In the past two years or so, the Russian Academy of Sciences has explored how to establish a science and technology management system under market economy conditions.
1. Expand the autonomy of the institute. At its plenary session in 1992, the Russian Academy of Sciences adopted the "Basic Principles of Organization and Activities of the Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences", giving the institute more autonomy. The document stipulates that the institute has the rights of a legal person and has the right to independently decide on its own economic, social and organizational issues. That is, the institutional structure of the institute is formulated by the director and approved by the academic committee of the institute: the research ownership is merged with an independent organization and a branch institute can be established. (Branch); the scientific research department of the institute can independently carry out scientific research projects, select research methods, formulate plans and allocate proceeds according to the basic direction and planning of the institute's scientific research; the institute can independently determine the income and expenditure of the institute , establish various funds; can independently determine the staffing, professional structure, salary amount, subsidies, sign and terminate contracts with individuals or scientific research collectives, and reward staff; change the appointment system of the director of the institute to open recruitment and voting .
2. Reform the business management system. In 1993, the Russian Academy of Sciences implemented an economic accounting system for scientific research departments and auxiliary departments engaged in applied research and development, making them economically independent. The Academy of Sciences no longer organizes according to disciplines, majors and scientific research institutions. Allocate funds evenly, but concentrate national budget funds, focusing on supporting basic research with development prospects and schools of thought with world-class scientific research departments. In the future, more funds will be allocated to specific scientific research plans.
3. Implement the contract system. Two years ago, some institutes of the Academy of Sciences began to trial the contract system for scientific research groups and scientific researchers. Now the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences believes that the implementation of the contract system is very helpful in improving scientific research efficiency, and has decided to promote this system throughout the academy.
4. Establish a scientific research evaluation system. In order to achieve the goal of scientific management, the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences is currently formulating an evaluation system for the work of research institutions. This year, the research institutions will be re-evaluated, and on this basis, the scientific research of the Academy of Sciences will be further adjusted. Structure.
5. Improve the remuneration of scientific researchers. The reduction of scientific research funds has greatly affected the work and life of scientific researchers. In 1990, the average monthly salary of scientific researchers was 13% higher than the average monthly salary in the industrial sector. , but by the first half of 1992, the average monthly salary of scientific researchers was only 73.1% of the national per capita monthly salary and 60% of the per capita salary in industry. Therefore, for the sake of livelihood, many high-level scientific researchers and young scientific and technological personnel have gone abroad or changed their careers to business. In the first half of 1992 alone, the scientific research personnel of the Academy of Sciences decreased by 9.8%, and about 40% of outstanding physicists went abroad. In the past two years, the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences has made every effort to maintain the human resources of the Academy and has repeatedly appealed to the government and the country. Leaders reflected the plight of scientific researchers, demanded improvements in their remuneration, and put forward many specific suggestions. Under the proposal of the Academy of Sciences, the government made some decisions to improve the material remuneration of scientific researchers. For example, from January this year, 5,000 national science grants with a monthly amount of 75,000 rubles will be established for outstanding Russian scientists; 1,000 three-year grants with a monthly amount of 75,000 rubles will be established for talented young scientists. A state science subsidy of 50,000 rubles; starting from January 1, 1993, a substantial increase in salaries for formal and corresponding academicians of the Russian Academy of Sciences; and a grant of 50,000 rubles to staff with doctorate and associate doctorate degrees in national scientific research institutions and universities. A monthly subsidy of 50 pascals is their job salary. The Academy of Sciences also further improves the treatment of scientific researchers through income-generating activities.
6. Improve the reward system to recognize scientists with outstanding scientific achievements, major scientific discoveries, and inventions , is particularly important for motivating scientific researchers who work under difficult conditions. This year, the Russian Academy of Sciences began to establish a series of new gold medals and awards named after outstanding scientists, and promulgated award regulations. Awarded by the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences There are two types of large gold medals. There are nearly 30 types of gold medals and more than 90 types of awards awarded by the school. The school has established an appraisal committee for each gold medal and award. The committee is responsible for evaluating The achievements of applicants for medals and bonuses are scientifically evaluated and candidates are proposed.
7. Raise the Young Scientists Fund. The Academy of Sciences will provide successors for basic research work and support the research activities of young scientists in the national budget for the Academy of Sciences. When the amount dropped, it was decided to use the institute's own funds, that is, to raise the Young Scientists Fund using royalties from each institute and commissions from various commercial organizations in the institute.
For more than two years, thanks to the hard work of the Russian Academy of Sciences, although the academy has not yet emerged from the predicament, there are still many unsatisfactory aspects in all aspects: scientific research funding is tight; the government often defaults on payments to the Academy of Sciences. Scientific research funding. For example, the 16.4 billion rubles that were supposed to be released to the Academy of Sciences in December 1993 were not received until April 1994. Another government debt of 22.9 billion rubles in 1993 was not received by the Academy of Sciences until the end of April 1994; according to statistics from relevant departments, in the first quarter of 1994, most of the researchers at the Academy of Sciences belonged to the 10% of Russian residents whose income among the lowest.
Despite this, the situation of the Russian Academy of Sciences has improved in some respects. Fortunately, after three consecutive years of significant decline in the number of young scientific and technological personnel absorbed by the Academy of Sciences (a drop of about 2/3), more than 1,100 were accepted in 1993. The number of young scientific and technological personnel (excluding regional branches) increased from 1992: the number of postgraduate students admitted in 1993 also increased by 100 from the previous year, reaching more than 760; the number of PhDs working in the hospital increased by 5.6; personnel loss The situation has also eased slightly; the Academy of Sciences has also achieved greater success in carrying out international cooperation. So far, the Academy has signed 74 cooperation agreements with foreign scientific organizations, which involve almost all research directions in contemporary basic sciences; various research directions of the Academy of Sciences According to the appraisal of the Ministry of Education, the Russian Academy of Sciences achieved about 150 major scientific research results in 1993. The Russian Academy of Sciences is tenaciously striving for survival and development in difficult circumstances.