20 august 2008

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting on the development of science and education

Vladimir Putin

Meeting on the development of science and education

Participants:
"From 2009 the federal targeted programme on Scientific and Pedagogical-Scientific Staff of Innovative Russia will come into force. I expect that it will allow us to increase the professional level of our specialists and create a clear-cut system of attracting young and promising scientists. For achieving this goal we have allocated 80 billion roubles from the federal budget."

Vladimir Putin's opening remarks:

Good afternoon,

Today we are going to discuss the main development strategies for science and education.

As you know, these past few years we've been paying special attention to this field. Thus, the legal framework for the activities of the state academies of sciences has been renewed. This move not only consolidated their independence, but also increased their responsibility for the results I will talk about a little later.

We have approved a five-year programme, allocating more than 250 billion roubles for fundamental research. It is expected to lead to a considerable upsurge in science and to improve its competitiveness. And it is certainly aimed at tangibly increasing the effectiveness of the achievements in the interests of socio-economic growth and state security.

From 2009 the federal targeted programme on Scientific and Pedagogical-Scientific Staff of Innovative Russia will come into force. I expect that it will allow us to increase the professional level of our specialists and create a clear-cut system of attracting young and promising scientists. For achieving this goal we have allocated 80 billion roubles from the federal budget.

In total, within the limits of different federal programmes in the field of high technologies for 2008-2010, 600 billion roubles have been allocated. We have never allocated such large sums before.

I consider the establishment of national universities an important part of the development of Russian science. Two national universities have already been established, the Southern and the Siberian universities. They demand our special attention and development support.

As you know, the decision on the establishment of one more federal university in the Far East has been made. The decision on the establishment of two national research centres has been prepared: the National Nuclear Research University on the basis of the Moscow Engineering and Physics Institute and the National Research Technological University on the basis of Moscow Steel and Alloys Institute.

At the same time the effectiveness of the state science sector is still low. The success in fundamental science does not create the necessary dynamics and quality of application studies, and they in turn take no account of the real needs of the state economy.

The research and development sector is still relying only on federal resources. It has weak commercial potential and, which is exceptionally important, it is poorly integrated with education. All of this greatly aggravates its personnel problems.

It is obvious that while realising the approved programmes for the modernisation of science and education, we have to think about creating new instruments

Let us talk about this in details.

Andrei Fursenko, please.