The Foundation and Russia’s Regions

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THE FOUNDATION AND RUSSIA’S REGIONS

An important part in the activity of RFBR is its cooperation with Russia’s regions. The Foundation makes every effort to attract more scientists from the nation’s regions to take part in selection contests as well as in expert examination and merit review of submitted applications. Of significant importance to the development of science in Russia’s regions is assistance provided by RFBR in the creation and development of international telecommunications systems and connection to the global networks.
Fig. 1.
The RFBR’s experience shows that scientists from the nation’s regions are insufficiently active which is especially true of those regions where scientific research tends to concentrate not in academic establishments but in higher learning institutions. At the same time, the role and importance of the nation’s regions is ever growing. Figure 1 shows that the region-specific distribution of projects funded by RFBR corresponds in principle to the distribution of the scientific and technological potential which existed already in Soviet times.
In 2003 the total number of the country’s regions cooperating with RFBR reached 76, thus almost all of Russia’s regions cooperated with RFBR.
Table 3 presents comparative data for the 20 regions of Russia that were the most active in their cooperation with RFBR in 1996 and 2003. As may be seen from the table, the share of Moscow, St. Petersburg and the Moscow Oblast (region) was somewhat reduced during these years while the share of some other regions of Russia increased, including the following regions: Sverdlovskaya and Irkutskaya oblasts, Krasnoyarsky and Krasnodarsky Krays, Tatarstan and Bashkortostan.

Table 3

Comparative Participation of Regions in Projects Funded by RFBR in 1996 and 2003

Constitutive Entities of the Russian Federation Having Projects | 1996 | 2003
1. Moscow | 51.30 | 44.35
2. St. Petersburg | 12.22 | 11.00
3. Moscow oblast | 9.04 | 8.57
4. Novosibirskaya oblast | 7.10 | 8.16
5. Nizhegorodskaya oblast | 2.45 | 2.79
6. Sverdlovskaya oblast | 2.25 | 3.06
7. Irkutskaya oblast | 1.53 | 1.90
8. Tatarstan | 1.46 | 2.06
9. Tomskaya oblast | 1.19 | 1.39
10. Primorsky kray | 1.18 | 1.21
11. Rostovskaya oblast | 0.90 | 0.84
12. Krasnoyarsky kray | 0.64 | 0.95
13. Voronezhskaya oblast | 0.62 | 0.55
14. Leningradskaya oblast | 0.59 | 0.46
15. Bashkortostan | 0.55 | 0.85
16. Saratovskaya oblast | 0.54 | 0.73
17. Yaroslavskaya oblast | 0.45 | 0.72
18. Kaluzhskaya oblast | 0.44 | 0.73
19. Permskaya oblast | 0.44 | 0.76
20. Murmanskaya oblast | 0.38 | 0.57

Figure 2 shows that, for the Center and the North of Russia, the most attractive areas of knowledge remain physics and biology, and only in the West-Siberian and the Far-Eastern regions the distribution of projects with respect to areas of knowledge is more uniform although in the latter one can even see some prevalence on the part of Earth sciences.
Fig. 2.
1997 marked the start of joint selection contests conducted by RFBR together with the administrations of constitutive entities of the Russian Federation, such contests were called “regional”. The first regional programs were related to the problems of the Lake Baikal and the natural catastrophes on the Kamchatka Peninsula. In the subsequent years, RFBR continued its policy of holding joint contests with regional administrations, and at present a system of RFBR regional contests is in existence with an annual amount of funding accounting for 3% of the budget of the Foundation.
Regional contests are based on parity financing of projects submitted for review on the initiative of independent scientists and supported both by expert panels of RFBR and by a respective regional expert panel which should necessary include not only experts in respective areas of science but also representatives of the administrations of the respective regions.
During the organization and holding of regional contests, the activity of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research in the regions of Russia is directed towards finding solutions to the following problems:
- procurement of additional monetary funds from the regional budgets and the industry to provide financial support to scientific research;
- raising the creative activity of scientific collectives in the nation’s regions;
- invitation of scientists from Russia’s regions to participate in expert examination of projects;
- research into problems having a particular importance for a given region, including measures to invite specialists from Russia’s leading research centers and to create virtual research teams;
- development of scientific telecommunications to provide scientists from all regions of our nation with access to the international scientific and information resources, to the information system of the Foundation and to our scientific electronic library;
- sharing of experience in competitive selection and targeted financing of promising scientific research conducted in Russia’s constitutive entities;
- intensification of innovation processes;
- support to the largest regional scientific libraries;
- free transfer of scientific monographs published with financial support from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research to Russia’s leading research institutions and universities.
Unlike it is the case with the main contests organized by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, when it comes to regional contests, priorities are set to favor the interests of respective regions. The administration of a region, together with leading scientists, prepares a list of issue areas whose development is deemed to require basic research. Within such areas the administration can arrange an independent highly-qualified expert examination of submitted projects using the expert system of RFBR. In addition, highly qualified experts from Russia’s other regions can be invited to help deal with specific problems.
The experience of RFBR in cooperation with the administrations of constituent entities of the Russian Federation shows that, in the organization of regional selection contests, the main interests of the regions tend to be in the following areas:

- Development of theoretical groundwork and mathematic models for rational nature management accounting for the effects of the anthropogenic and technogenic impact on the environment
- Research into the mechanisms of development of extensive territories: the Arctic, Western Siberia, the Urals, Chernozem Area, the Yenisey Meridan, the Middle and Upper Volga (problems of studying and preserving forests, reservoirs, chernozems, etc.)
- Basic scientific research whose final aim is to develop resource-saving technologies, new renewable sources of energy and new materials
- Study of various instances of environmental pollution, search for ways to eliminate consequences of such pollution and rehabilitation of ecosystems, including the improvement of the living and health conditions of people, development of new medications
- Issues related to the study, preservation and development of national culture and cultural heritage landmarks

The system of regional contests of RFBR has been constantly developing and now almost half of the constituent entities of Russia have permanent contacts with RFBR. Since 1997 the number of projects supported with grants has increased fourfold, and the amount of funding has also increased (Fig. 3.)
Fig. 3.
In 1998-2000 over 600 research teams were supported in the framework of regional contests. In 2000 funding was provided for 10 regional selection contests with a total amount of 30 million Rubles. In 2003, 862 regional projects were financed with a total amount in excess of 110 million Rubles, and in 2004 over 1,400 applications were submitted during regional contests.
The most successful experience in the organization of support on a competitive basis to scientific research was gathered in Kaluzhskaya oblast, Krasnodarsky Kray and Kransnoyarsky Kray where financial obligations are fully met. Regional selection contests held by the RFBR have met with wide public recognition.
Despite the fact that some of Russia’s oblasts (provinces), krays (territories) and republics are currently in a rather difficult financial situation, many of their problems are hard to solve without dealing with fundamental issues, without attracting and making use of the intellectual potential of the nation’s leading scientists and researchers. This is especially true of those provinces where they face the task of creating innovative systems as there is no development without innovations, and the cornerstone of any innovative system is scientific achievements.
Since 1997, 54 constitutive entities of the Russian Federation have been among the co-founders of such contests.
Fig. 4.
RFBR considers regional programs to be an important and promising area in its activity and believes that constructive cooperation with the constituent entities of the Russian Federation will assist the preservation and development of the great potential of Russian science. Figure 4 shows that the share of Russia’s territory spanned with regional selection contests held by RFBR and the administrations of the respective regions is far larger that the territories which have not been involved in this process so far.

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