Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: Mr Fursenko, I would like to discuss the development of institutional science. It is based on the Academy of Sciences and its institutions, but institutional science has been gaining momentum recently. Let’s discuss it today.

Andrei Fursenko: I have prepared… (showing papers)

Vladimir Putin: Go ahead, please.

Andrei Fursenko: Mr Putin, I would like to begin by looking at the correlation between the funding of institutional science and the growing funding of all science. This red line shows the spending on research and development, in billions of roubles. Overall, you can see that it is growing steadily. In the past years, the funding for institutional science has been increasing, which is very important. It is growing faster than the funding of civil science allocated from the budget. First, institutional science attracts private investments. Second, it attracts considerable funds, also due to the state defence order.

The first important step was made with the start of the national priority project, when you supported innovation development programmes at several universities. The second step was made in 2008, when you launched the establishment of leading higher education institutions: research and federal universities.

The third image shows a network of leading universities all across the country, which is very important. A number of major infrastructure projects were implemented within this network. Considerable investments were poured into equipment and a programme for attracting leading scientists was launched. Some time ago I reported to you on the allocation of mega-grants for the leading scientists. The next picture shows which countries these scientists came from. One is from Australia, another is from Iceland. And it’s also important that they didn’t go only to Moscow or St Petersburg, but to universities across the entire country. Core facilities have been created for them.

Vladimir Putin: There are many scientists from Europe and the United States.

Andrei Fursenko: That’s right, from Europe and the United States. They can be divided into two groups: roughly half of them are Russians who had gone to live abroad, and half are foreign scientists who came to work in Russia and to set up laboratories at our leading universities.

Vladimir Putin: Using the grants we have provided…

Andrei Fursenko: Using the grants we have provided, and…

Vladimir Putin: If I remember correctly, the grants were 150…

Andrei Fursenko: 150 million each. Some received less, but basically this is it.

At the same time, we have been creating core facilities, which means we have provided universities with powerful, up-to-date equipment. And we have accomplished certain results. Here I have put together some examples of the growth of funding per scientist. The growth was 250-300% and a bit higher at higher educational institutions subordinate to our ministry, perhaps because these are key research institutes. But there was average growth, too.

To illustrate, let’s look at the Bauman Moscow State Technical University, one of our top schools. In 2004, it got 74,000 roubles per person, and now it receives 350,000 roubles. The growth is considerable, and I would like to note that these are not only budgetary funds. More than half the funding came from the industry rather than as budget allocations.

As for research institutes, the projects that have been launched started to receive funding in late 2009. In 2010, the total research and development began to grow, and a zigzag line turned into growth. Why? Because they started attracting funds from the sources other than the budget.

Vladimir Putin: Right, the growth was quite steady until 2009, and also in 2010.

Andrei Fursenko: Yes, and it continues going up. We have got no data for 2011 yet, but according to preliminary data, the growth is continuing.

Vladimir Putin: It was 6.2 and became 8.9…

Andrei Fursenko: Here is the next image. Money is money, but I believe this image is also enormously important. Let me explain: this shows the percentage of PhDs and DScs under 40 at universities. The figure has been increasing steadily since 2004. In 2008, progress came to a halt, which coincided with the beginning of the economic crisis, when we had to support the industry and the social sector. As a result, the financing growth stopped. You issued instructions to get back to this matter at the beginning of next year. In a sense, this is a serious and even a dangerous trend that needs to be addressed again, because it indicates that skilled young people are choosing careers in academia.

These are not the youngest age group; the increase is largely owing to people over 30, aged between 30 and 40. And it’s very important because it means that a basic group has emerged which we almost lost in the 1990s, when academic institutions had either employees nearing retirement age or recent graduates, while this group either left the country or changed careers. The development of infrastructure, an increase in the government’s funding of research, and making it possible for companies to place orders have all contributed to the growth of this group.

Therefore, we have competed the second stage: the national project was the first stage, and the creation of leading higher educational institutions was the second stage. Now we are at the start of the third stage. We have announced a tender for university development programmes. In this case, we have redistributed the money and announced a tender for some 50 development programmes. Each university that will be able to prove the merits of its programme will receive 100 million roubles a year for three years, a total of 300 million roubles, provided that they attract some extra funding from the private sector and by getting orders. So this network comprising 40 leading higher educational institutions will get additional support at the next level. If they perform well, we will be able to continue this system by attracting funding from businesses and perhaps by launching another tender for research institutes.

The last thing that I would like to mention has to do with carrying out your instructions to bring faculty members’ salaries up to the average wages nationwide. This is a fiscal measure… We have analysed higher educational institutions and have decided that the bonuses of those rectors who don’t ensure the faculty members have sufficiently high salaries should be redistributed in favour of the teaching staff. Here is the result for the 3^rd and the 4^th quarter. I think 63 rectors out of 300 higher educational institutions subordinate to our ministry have lost their bonuses in these six months. We believe it is very important that rectors feel personally responsible for the salaries of their staff.

Vladimir Putin: This shows progress towards social justice, so this is the right decision.