THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC HAS CLEARLY DEMONSTRATED THAT THE MOST EFFECTIVE UNIT OF ADMINISTRATION AMID A GLOBAL CRISIS TODAY REMAINS THE STATE.

Preserving state sovereignty is a complex task, which refers not only to the protection of state and territorial integrity, the prevention of any possible military aggression against Russia, but also to the formulation of an independent national policy in science, education and culture, in those areas of public life that are key to achieving the national development goals of the country.

Declaring 2021 to be the Year of Science and Technology by Presidential Decree was an important step and a sign of support from the state for the Russian scientific community. This step was part of a comprehensive state policy in the field of national scientific and technological development, ensuring independence and competitiveness, which today depend on the level of scientific and technological development and qualifications of personnel. During the Year of Science and Technology more than 4 thousand events were held to popularize science and involve young people in research activities, a number of landmark infrastructure projects related to the development of the basis for scientific research in the country were launched.

The scientific community of the country in the updated in 2021 program of scientific and technological development by 2030120 has set an ambitious goal to take the seventh place in the world ranking in terms of research and development.

SCIENTIFIC CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS IN RUSSIA

STATE PROGRAMS AND PROJECTS AIMED AT DEVELOPING SCIENTIFIC POTENTIAL AND INCREASING THE IMPORTANCE OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IN RUSSIA:

At the same time, the share of domestic spending on research and development in GDP by 2030, according to the program of scientific and technological development, will be only 1.64%, which experts say is insufficient.

Qualifying the human resources to replenish the national research corps, it should be noted that in 2019, there were 84.3 thousand postgraduate students in Russia, which is 1.8 times less than in 2010.

The postgraduate education efficiency has also dropped down: the share of postgraduate students who graduated with PhD theses decreased from 30.3% to 10.4% of the total number of postgraduate graduates.121

Low level of demand for the domestic R&D sector on the part of other economy sectors, lack of commercial demand for the scientific findings, weak recruitment of young scientific personnel and scientists, lack of comprehensive monitoring of scientific performance, failure to use the system of scientific and technical evalutaion, insufficient level of scientific publications are among the reasons for the low productivity of development and improvement of Russian science.122

For many years, the need to improve the system of scientific publications, which determines, in particular, the national scientific prestige at the international level has been discussed at the state level. In the opinion of State Duma deputies, formalized evaluations of scientific publications lead to funding that is insufficient for the effective development of science123.

The publication activity and citation rate of researchers is one of the indicators used to rank researchers and institutions around the world. Russia has its own bibliographic database of scientific publications — the Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI). The RSCI accumulates more than 12 million publications by Russian authors with free open access to materials. The RSCI indicators are used to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of research organizations, scientists, and the level of scientific journals.124.

Despite the fact that Russian scientific and educational institutions are included in the lists of international rankings and fully meet the world educational standards, their share in the published rankings is rather small. Throughout the period of the state program to improve the international competitiveness of Russian universities “5−100”, the number of Russian universities included in the published part of the ratings has increased more than threefold. The focus on global university rankings has forced Russian universities to think about the need to position themselves in the global academic environment. However, the ratings themselves as a tool continue to cause much controversy in the Russian scientific and expert community both in terms of the methodology used and in terms of the subjective nature of individual assessments.

The Civic Chamber supposes that the modern higher education and scientific community of Russia is facing the problem of objective evaluation of the quality of the national educational and scientific sphere. International citation databases are still a key factor in evaluating the effectiveness of Russian universities and scientists. This is not questionable when it comes to the natural sciences, but it is different when Russian scientists talk about the historical, political, and sociological sciences. The international ranking of Russian research in the humanities raises questions about the political subjectivity and biased approach of the rating agencies.125.

During the Russian Professors' Forum-2021 “Science and Technology in the XXI Century: Trends and Prospects” President of the Civic Chamber Lydia Mikheeva proposed to change the approach to the ranking system of higher educational institutions and scientific establishments in Russia. The President of the Civic Chamber believes that such rankings should not only give priority to publications published abroad.126

The difficulties of developing own national scientific rating system in Russia, the influence of university rankings and publications in international citation systems on national policy in the field of higher education, as well as issues of preserving the importance of the Russian language in scientific publications were discussed in detail at the events of the Civic Chamber in 2021.

In 2021, the Civic Chamber noted a significant reduction in the weight of the Russian language in the global academic space. There is a drop in the volume of scientific information and communication in Russian, the intensity of this information exchange, and the number of participants in this communication — producers and consumers of scientific content in Russian.

This leads to a reduction in the space of the Russian-language scientific picture of the world, the range of ideas and meanings, systems of terms and concepts, discoveries and hypotheses formulated in the Russian language, inventions and technologies developed in the course of research in Russian language.

The Civic Chamber emphasizes the need to ensure the preservation of the Russianlanguage scientific area as an essential part of the strategy to strengthen the national sovereignty.

PROPOSALS OF THE CIVIC CHAMBER TO PRESERVE THE RUSSIANSPEAKING SCIENTIFIC AREA

To improve the national science and technology policy, in June 2021 draft law No. 1191150−7 “On Amendments to the Federal Law ‘On Science and State Science and Technology Policy'”127was submitted to the State Duma. Amendments envisage improvement of legal regulation of formation and maintenance of the unified state information system of registration of scientific research, experimental and design and technological works for civil purposes, and also creation of the unified register of final recipients of means of state support of innovation activity.

The Civic Chamber in the framework of public evaluation approved the draft law, noting its timeliness and relevance of the goals to improve the system of state support for innovation.

In October 2021, as part of the Year of Science and Technology the Civic Chamber hosted a large-scale international forum of science popularizers of BRICS countries.128During two days, scientists, economists, journalists and public figures canvassed the increasing role of science in solving global problems of humanity, the importance of popularizing science for humanistic, scientific-technological and economic development of states. Noting the acuteness of the debate in society on the role of education for the state development and the society’s attitude, the Civic Chamber emphasized that nowadays it is necessary to openly discuss the problems of promotion of scientific activity at the all-Russian and international level.

NATIONAL SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT IS AIMED AT ACHIEVING THE NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT GOALS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION AND ENSURING THE TECHNOLOGICAL INDEPENDENCE AND COMPETITIVENESS OF RUSSIA. ONE OF THE IMPORTANT ROLES IN ACHIEVING THESE GOALS IS PLAYED BY RUSSIAN UNIVERSITIES, WHICH ARE IMPOSED WITH A TASK OF INCREASING RESEARCH CAPACITY.

A new national project, “Science and Universities”, launched by the Government of Russia in 2021, is aimed at achieving the goals of scientific and technological development of the country. It combines the efforts of the “Science” national project with the efforts of the “Education” national project in the field of higher education.129

Considerable work has been done during the Year of Science and Technology as part of the national project; as of midNovember, 60 activities out of 66 planned until the end of the year have been completed. Work has been launched to create world-class inter-university campuses that will become powerful growing points for science, education, and innovation. The work to support young researchers is underway, along with the higher education infrastructure and expeditionary research being shaped and actively developed.130

The project provides that by 2030 Russia should be among the top five countries in the development of priority areas of technological development. It is envisaged to enhance the engagement of universities in the national economy and to shift their research toward technological development.131The National Project will ensure the availability of quality higher and additional education and increase the appeal of careers in science and higher education.132

NATIONAL PROJECT “SCIENCE AND UNIVERSITIES”

THE FEDERAL BUDGET EXPENDITURES FOR THE NATIONAL PROJECT “SCIENCE AND UNIVERSITIES” FOR 2022- 2024 ARE PLANNED IN THE AMOUNT OF OVER 410 BILLION RUBLES. IN 2022, THEY MAYEXCEED 121 BILLION RUBLES, IN 2023 — 150 BILLION 433.5 MILLION RUBLES, IN 2024 — 39 BILLION 111 MILLION RUBLES

COMPARED WITH THE CURRENT BUDGET ACT FOR 2021 AND PLANNED PERIOD OF 2022−2023, FUNDING OF THE “SCIENCE AND UNIVERSITIES” PROJECT IN 2022 INCREASED BYALMOST 6 BILLION RUBLES, IN 2023 — NEARLY 14 BILLION RUBLES, IN 2024 PLANNED TO PRODUCE AN INCREASE OF MORE THAN 11 BILLION RUBLES

Members of the Coordination Council under the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation on national projects and population preservation formulated their proposed amendments to the “Science and Universities” national project.

To further improve the National Project, the Civic Chamber suggested creating youth and student design bureaus at industrial enterprises, expanding the participants of the National Project through scientific and innovative organizations, developing scientific and technological centers, involving young people in solving high-tech problems, a number of measures to support teachers, as well as new forms of project-based learning.

Dmitry Chernyshenko, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, instructed the responsible agencies to study the proposals of the Civic Chamber.133

The new program of strategic academic leadership of Russian universities until 2030, “Priority-2030”, launched in June 2021, is also aimed at the development of scientific, educational and innovative potential of universities.134The program aims to form a broad group of universities to be leaders in the generation of new scientific knowledge, technologies and developments for their implementation in the Russian economy and social sphere.135

The Commission of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation has selected out of 187 programs for the development of higher educational institutions 106 universities that became participants in the program “Priority-2030”. The number of universities participating in the “Priority-2030” program is far more than in the previous programs: national research universities — 29 universities, federal universities — 10 universities, the program “Project 5−100” - 21 participating universities.

It is worth noting that the “Priority-2030” program did not consider international rankings and publications. Targeted entry into international rankings has been replaced by tools that will shape the development of higher education institutions.136

The program roll-out will increase the scientific and educational potential of universities and scientific organizations, which will increase the availability of higher education in different regions of the country, train in-demand specialists, and actively develop and deploy high technologies in the social and economic sphere, which will contribute to the effective use of human capital and improve the quality of life of the population as a whole.

“PRIORITY-2030” PROGRAM

“PRIORITY-2030” IS AIMED AT CREATING MORE THAN 100 PROGRESSIVE MODERN UNIVERSITIES IN RUSSIA BY 2030 — THE CENTERS OF SCIENTIFIC-TECHNOLOGICAL AND NATIONAL SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The Civic Chamber notes that the innovative, breakthrough development requires significant changes in the system of professional training in all sectors of education. The key approaches to modern educational activities are practice-oriented and modular, which allow the student to form a personalized set of competencies.

Members of the Civic Chamber noted the positive role of Federal Law No. 144- FZ “On Amendments to the Federal Law “On Education in the Russian Federation” dated May 26, 2021, which entered into force on September 1, 2021, in improving the existing mechanism for the application of professional standards in the field of professional education.

Given the value of involving the potential of Russian universities in achieving national development goals, the Civic Chamber sent recommendations to the Ministry of Science and Higher Education on the digitalization of humanities education.

Members of the Civic Chamber believe that humanitarian education today is facing two major challenges:

• Need to introduce educational components on new intellectual technologies in the field of professional activity into the training of specialists in the humanities profile;
• Need to update and improve those educational programs of humanitarian orientation which train specialists directly involved in the development and production of innovative technologies.

The vital areas of research and development in such technologies involve the growth of specialists in the analysis of language data by methods of exact sciences, and the Civic Chamber recommends that special attention be paid to their introduction into humanities education.

Russian education and science today are becoming a driver in the technological, economic, innovative and social development of the country. The Civic Chamber is confident that the state strategy, aimed at increasing the scientific, educational and cultural potential of our country, will effectively solve all the problems of Russian society.