Half of Russia’s scientists left after the politi- cal crisis of the 1990s. Since then, the coun- try has had no scientific plan. Research resources have been misdirected and pro- ductivity has dropped, from about 3% of the total papers published globally in 1995 to less than 2% in 2010.
Changes in the past decade have been more positive. The Russian government has increased the funding of scientific research from 77 billion rubles in 2006 to 323 billion rubles (US$10.4 billion) in 2012. More is needed to overcome the prolonged deterio- ration of research in Russia and to move to an innovation-led economy.
Russia’s share of high-technology prod- ucts is now only 0.8% of the world market. A gap between pure and applied research is holding innovation back. Entrepreneurs, who turn intellectual property into products, are almost absent in Russia.
The Skolkovo Foundation — a govern- ment project that aims to build a Silicon Valley environment in Russia (see go.nature. com/tjzgdi) — bridges the divide between science and industry by supporting the crea- tion of innovative companies.
One of Skolkovo’s first success stories is Rock Flow Dynamics (RFD; www.rfdyn. com), a company that develops software for the petroleum industry. Founded in 2005 by three Moscow mathematics and physics grad- uates, in 2010 RFD attracted an investment of $2 million from technology fund Intel Capi- tal. Today, RFD sells product licences to oil and gas companies around the world.
Regional growth in science is badly needed. Most research is concentrated in the large cities of Moscow, St Petersburg, Tomsk and Novosibirsk. Cooperation between universi- ties and local governments can benefit both, as at the South Ural State University in Chely- abinsk, where a powerful supercomputer centre has been created. Steps to improve researcher mobility, perhaps through com- petitive programmes such as the 2010 ‘mega- grant’ effort to set up a series of elite labs, would boost science across the nation.
With limited money, the Russian Federa- tion must pick priority research areas. Infor- mation technology is one. The mathematical sciences have been strong historically, and as local IT companies such as Yandex, Kaspersky Lab and Parallels show, Russia could become a global leader. In the past ten years, international giants IBM, Boeing and Siemens have created research centres in Russia.
Bureaucratic barriers that raise the cost of research, such as customs tax for imported scientific materials, must also be removed. With these steps, Russia can regain the position in global science that it deserves.
Source: Nature