Russian Academy of Sciences

Ye Xiaoliang Source: Studies in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, No.1, 1995

Russian Academy of Sciences (USSR Academy of Sciences) is a world-famous large-scale scientific organization with a history of nearly 27 years. It has a complete system of scientific institutions and a strong scientific team, and has made brilliant achievements at the world level in many disciplines. At the end of 1991, due to the disintegration of the former Soviet Union countries, the Institute was placed under Russia. Soon after, it merged with the newly established Russian Academy of Sciences and was formed into the Russian Academy of Sciences.

I. Overview of Russian Academy of Sciences

The Russian Academy of Sciences is the highest scientific institution in Russia, and it is an all-Russian autonomous institution with Russian laws as its action criterion. Its main task is to engage in basic research in the main fields of natural science, technical science and social science, and to exercise overall academic leadership over the national natural science and social science research, especially the basic research, including determining the main direction of basic research, being responsible for formulating the national research plan for natural science and social science, and coordinating the basic research work of various professional departments, professional academies and universities. In addition, it also participates in formulating and implementing national special or comprehensive science and technology plans.

The highest organ of the Russian Academy of Sciences is the plenary session composed of full academicians and communication academicians. When the plenary session is not in session, the highest functional organ is the Presidium of the Academy elected by the plenary session. The Presidium of the Academy is composed of the following personnel: the president, the first vice president and several vice presidents (six are responsible for physics and mathematics, biology, chemistry, geoscience, informatics, computing technology, mechanical problems, control process and dynamics, respectively). Several directors of regional branches. Vice president of a large science center), academic secretary-general of the presidium, academician secretary and other members. The presidium consists of 18 departments, namely: Mathematics Department; Department of General Physics and Astronomy; Department of Nuclear Physics; Department of Physics and Technology of Dynamics; Department of Mechanical Manufacturing, Mechanics and Control Process; Department of Informatics, Computing Technology and Automation; Department of General Chemistry and Engineering Chemistry; Department of Physical Chemistry and Inorganic Materials Technology, Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Physiologically Active Compound Chemistry: Department of Biochemistry; 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 Economics and International Relations; Department of literature and linguistics.

The Academy of Sciences has three regional branches (Far East Branch, Siberian Branch and Ural Branch) and several large-scale scientific centers (St. Petersburg Science Center, Dagestan Science Center, Karelia Science Center and Kola Science Center), all of which are directly under the jurisdiction of the Presidium of the Academy. In addition, the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences and various departments also have more than 3 scientific committees of various disciplines, whose members are from the Academy of Sciences and universities. There are nearly 2, staff members, 437 full academicians and 611 communication academicians.

Second, efforts to get rid 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 course. As the country is in a period of great transition from a planned economy to a market economy, the economic situation is grim and inflation is intensifying, which has put the Academy under unprecedented pressure: the prices of scientific research materials, instruments and equipment have risen several times in a short period of time, and the expenditure on scientific research has increased sharply. The material foundation level of scientific research is rapidly declining, the working and living conditions of scientific researchers are deteriorating, and a large number of talents are 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 formulated the working policy of the Academy of Sciences according to the situation, and made it clear that the Academy of Sciences is the highest scientific institution in the country and the main birthplace of basic scientific knowledge. Its main task at this stage is to ensure high-level basic research and make greater contributions to the country's getting rid of the social and economic crisis. To maintain and develop the scientific potential, especially those scientific research units and schools that are world-class or enjoy authority in the international scientific community, the presidium has creatively adopted a series of measures in scientific research management.

(1) The economic crisis of broadening sources of funds has greatly reduced Russia's scientific research budget. In 199, the proportion of Russian scientific research funds to national income was 5. 6%, while in 1992 it accounted for less than 2%. Of the total national scientific research expenses, the funds allocated to Russian Academy of Sciences (excluding regional branches) accounted for about lO%. In 1992, the national budget allocated by the Academy of Sciences was only enough to barely pay the salaries of staff and the expenses of utilities, heating, rent and other municipal equipment after a substantial price increase. The expenses for purchasing instruments and equipment, reagents, materials and organizing inspection only accounted for 3%, while in 1991, this expenditure accounted for 5%. Even so, the state's budgetary expenses can't be fulfilled in time. At the same time, the original main source of extra-budgetary funds for the Academy of Sciences, that is, obtaining funds by signing various economic contracts with institutions and enterprises in the industrial and military sectors, has almost dried up due to the substantial reduction of their respective funds. In L99l, the Academy's own budget was 1.4 billion rubles, while the expenses from participating in external horizontal activities were 8 million rubles. A number of research institutions in the Academy of Sciences have been living on the expenses of horizontal activities. Therefore, among the many problems encountered by the Academy of Sciences, the shortage of funds is the most serious.

The Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences keeps asking the government, the president, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Science to increase the budget expenses, and at the same time, tries every means to open up the sources of funds.

1. actively participate in the formulation and implementation of various national science and technology plans. the presidium of the academy of sciences called on all departments, scientific committees and scientific research institutions to actively participate in the formulation and implementation of various national science and technology plans and make more contributions to the country's tide over difficulties. In 1992, each academy of sciences received 2.4 billion rubles for completing various national planning work.

2. Local-oriented economic construction The Russian Academy of Sciences is trying 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 13 scientific research institutions and 3, researchers in Mosco, including 14, associate doctors and 4,5 doctors. The Academy of Sciences cooperates with the Moscow municipal government with its strong scientific and technological advantages. At the beginning of 1993, the two sides jointly formulated two plans called "The scientific community supports the scientific community" and "Moscow supports the scientific community". In the previous plan, the Academy of Sciences provided Moscow with more than 6 scientific and technological achievements in 1 aspects, including urban construction, power and power supply, industrial and consumer markets, transportation and communication, urban natural environment and government department management, and the two sides determined the completion of the projects and the application enterprises of scientific and technological achievements. According to the negotiation, Moscow paid 1.5 billion rubles to the Academy of Sciences. The latter plan stipulates that Moscow supports the Academy of Sciences economically and materially, including a number of institutions of the Academy of Sciences in Moscow, especially research institutes that are conducive to the cultural development and improvement of the ecological environment in Moscow, and provide preferential treatment in terms of water and electricity, heating, drainage equipment costs and rent. These two plans not only make the Academy of Sciences get funds, but also break a new path for the commercialization and reproduction of scientific research achievements of the Academy of Sciences. At present, this cooperation model is being promoted in the Academy of Sciences.

Siberian branch, Ural branch and Far East branch play an important role in local economic construction.

3. Draw funds from various domestic science and technology funds. The Russian Academy of Sciences encourages individual scientists or scientific research groups to actively participate in the project competition of various science and technology funds. For example, under the active initiative and promotion of the Academy of Sciences, the government established the "Russian Foundation Research Fund". In 1992, scientists from various units of the Academy of Sciences received 1.7 billion rubles from the fund through competition.

4. Strive for foreign funds. In the past two years, the Russian Academy of Sciences has been trying to find opportunities to obtain funds from international institutions such as the United Nations and various foreign science foundations. For example, it signed a contract with UNESCO to carry out basic research in Russia. According to the agreement, during 1992-1994, UNESCO allocated US$ 3, to the Russian Academy of Sciences, which was used to expand its international contacts and help it establish a computer integration and communication research center. Let some talented young scholars in the institute go to world-famous scientific research centers for further study; In recent two years, the Academy of Sciences has only received considerable basic research expenses from the famous American entrepreneurs and the international science foundation organized by Soros. In addition, the Academy of Sciences has carried out extensive international scientific and technological cooperation with the United States, Germany, France, Europe, Japan and South Korea, which has also brought a lot of research expenses to the Academy of Sciences.

5. Patent protection of scientific research achievements. Russian Academy of Sciences obtains considerable freely convertible foreign exchange from its patents registered abroad every year (former Soviet Academy of Sciences 199. Years ago, it maintained 8-1 patents abroad). For example, the Academy of Sciences spent $13, to obtain patents for three inventions of the II Lebedev Institute of Physics in 1 countries, while the Academy of Sciences obtained $12 million from foreign companies according to the agreement. However, in the past two years, due to the lack of centralized foreign exchange funds, the number of patents registered abroad has been reduced. 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, so that its specialized XI registered abroad can form stability.

6. Establishing the Bank of Russian Academy of Sciences In 1991, the Russian Academy of Sciences established the first bank of Russian Academy of Sciences 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 among the shareholders, there are Russian Engineering Research Institute and a series of commercial and scientific production. The Academy of Sciences expects to use this bank to absorb more domestic and foreign funds and provide loans and investments for scientific research institutions and enterprises in the Institute.

7. commission of the units in the hospital. Some institutes, institutions and enterprises of the Russian Academy of Sciences regard renting houses, venues and other properties as an economic source. However, many units do not have such conditions. Therefore, the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences decided to deduct 2% from the rental income of these units, which will be used as the subsidy for basic research, the development of international scientific and technological cooperation and the special expenses for solving the social security problems of the staff of the Academy of Sciences.

8. Commercialization of scientific and technological personnel training Some people in the Russian Academy of Sciences believe that it is a promising supplementary source of funds to use the postgraduate training system of the Academy of Sciences to train senior scientific and technological personnel for various professional departments or private sectors of the country and commercialize the training work.

(II) Adjusting the organizational structure The leaders of the Russian Academy of Sciences believe that completely following the organizational model of the old Academy of Sciences can no longer adapt to the new situation of the transition to a market economy and must be adjusted in time. The main aspects of the adjustment are as follows:

1. Streamlining the institutions of the Academy and strengthening the role of the departments. According to the opinions of the plenary session of the Academy, the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences has streamlined the institutions that are too large and inefficient, and delegated some management functions of the institutions to the departments to strengthen the departments. The main direction of the department's current work is to support and develop promising basic research and applied research to ensure the use of large-scale test equipment.

2. Cancellation of duplicate research institutions The Academy of Sciences organized an expert appraisal committee to examine and approve the research institutions in the whole hospital. The research departments and topics with duplicate or outdated research contents will be resolutely revoked.

3. Setting up a joint research institute The Russian Academy of Sciences is exploring a new organizational form to strengthen cooperation among related research institutes in a certain "technical chain"-setting up a joint research institute. For example, based on the Institute of Geophysics, the Institute of Planetary Physics, the Institute of Experimental Geophysics, the Institute of Seismology, the Institute of Magnetotellurics and a geophysical observation station will form a joint research institute.

4. Building a teaching-research consortium with universities * * * In the past two years, the Academy of Sciences and universities have carried out activities of integrating scientific research and teaching, and accumulated a lot of experience. At present, quite a number of research institutes and scientific centers have established teaching-scientific research consortia with universities. The two sides complement each other and jointly engage in scientific research and train high-level professionals. For example, in Pushino Science Center of the Academy of Sciences, a famous biological city in Russia, a new type of teaching-scientific research-production complex has been established based on the center and the National Pushino University.

5. Siberian branch, a commercial and production department that founded the research institute, has made positive attempts in this regard. The development of a business-production department attached to the research institute can create new jobs, reduce the loss of scientific research and engineering technicians, protect intellectual property rights and increase income for the research institute. The branch has formulated a series of documents on the protection of intellectual property rights, and the most important thing is that the institute signs a patent agreement with developers and collective authors. At present, there are two modes of organization and management of commercial activities in the branch. One is the highly centralized management mode adopted by the Institute of Nuclear Physics, and the other is the mode of large-scale free business activities carried out by the Institute of Catalysis, and the latter intends to establish a holding company. In 1993, more than 5 such organizations were established in the whole Academy of Sciences, and most of them were engaged in the work of science-production and promotion of achievements.

The Academy of Sciences even set up 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. developing technology parks in recent years, with the active promotion of scientific research units of Siberian branch, Some technology parks are being formed around Novosibirsk Science City and other scientific centers in Siberia. In these areas, some branches of scientific research units, enterprises and joint-stock companies jointly organized by scientific research units and industry are active. Many of them are engaged in the development of scientific research achievements, product production and commercial activities. The Academy of Sciences believes that these comprehensive science cities and scientific centers in Siberia and their scientific research achievements are very suitable for the development of technology parks. At present, it is only necessary for the state to invest in some scientific research branches and large-scale projects, which can produce good economic benefits.

7. Establishment of an international scientific 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, the Altai International Humanities and Biosphere Research Center, the Siberian Solar Geophysical Research Center and the Siberian Geomorphology Research Center on the basis of some institutes of the Siberian Branch. Among the three international scientific research centers, Lea has 3 international ecological research centers in Baikal since 1988. More than 2 foreign scientists have come here to carry out research. The center has received $3.1 million investment from foreign institutions such as the University of Colorado, the Royal Society of Britain and the Royal College of Belgium. At present, these scientific centers are becoming the most powerful and active units in the Russian Academy of Sciences.

(3) Changing the management mechanism of science and technology In the past two years or so, the Russian Academy of Sciences has explored how to establish a management system of science and technology under the conditions of market economy.

1. Expand the autonomy of the research institute. At the plenary meeting in 1992, the Russian Academy of Sciences adopted "Russia"