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The RF President Approved Russian S&T Development Strategy 2035

In his address to the Federal Assembly Vladimir Putin mentioned that on 1 December he has signed the decree on the Russian S&T Development Strategy. HSE ISSEK experts participated in development of this document since 2015, in particular organising work groups and expert panels.

An extract of the address to the Federal Assembly mentioning the Strategy’s provisions:

“Dear colleagues, to reach a new level of economic and social development we need original, advanced research results and solutions. We need to concentrate on the areas where powerful technological potential for the future is being accumulated, and these are digital and other so-called cross-cutting technologies which today define the shape of all areas of life. Countries capable of generating them will have long-term advantages, will be able to collect huge technology-related revenues. Those unable to do so will find themselves in a dependent, vulnerable position. Cross-cutting technologies are applied in all industries: it’s digital, quantum, robotic, neural technologies, etc.

We should also bear in mind that, for example, digital technologies are also, of course, fraught with certain risks. We must adequately protect ourselves from cyber threats, make all elements of our infrastructure, financial and public administration systems much more secure.

I suggest we launch a major systemic programme to promote economic development based on the next-generation technology – the so-called digital economy. And we’ll rely on Russian companies to implement this programme, together with the country’s R&D and engineering centres.

It’s a national security matter, a matter of Russia’s technological independence, in a word – literally a matter of our future. We must take stock and remove all administrative, legal, and any other barriers hindering businesses’ entrance to the existing and emerging high-technology markets; provide adequate financial resources for such projects, and among other things orient the newly modernised VEB (“Development Bank”) towards accomplishing these objectives.

We’ll need skilled professionals, engineers, workers ready to deal with objectives of a new level. Accordingly, jointly with the private sector we’re building an advanced vocational education system, training college and technical school teachers to match the highest international standards.

We’ll increase the number of free tuition places for engineering, IT students, and other key professions which define economic development. Next year competency centres will be established on the basis of leading universities, including regional ones, to provide research and personnel support for projects contributing to development of new industries and markets.

Basic research should also become a powerful factor of advancing S&T groundwork required for economic growth and social development. It has a double objective of assessing and forecasting future trends, and suggesting the best solutions to meet the challenges we are going to face.

And in the domain of science, as everywhere else, we’ll be promoting competition, supporting the strong who can produce practical results. We’ll carry on developing research infrastructure sufficient for accomplishing major scientific objectives.

More than 200 world-class laboratories – and it’s no exaggeration at all – have already been established in the scope of the mega-grants programme; they are headed by scientists who set global research trends (incidentally, many of them are our countrymen who have resettled abroad).

I’ve recently met a group of these researchers. Many of them already spend most of their time in Russian labs, working successfully and enjoying their work. They can see that Russia sets interesting research objectives, builds up a decent research basis, and provides decent material compensation.

But of course people have a right to, and should see that they have a work horizon and a planning horizon; therefore I suggest we make sure we provide long-term funding for efficient research projects, among other things by using resources of the Russian Science Foundation.

At the same time it’s fundamentally important to support our own gifted young scientists – and there are lots of them – so they’d put together their own research teams and laboratories in Russia. A special line of grants will be launched for them, for up to seven years. 3.5 billion roubles will be allocated for these purposes, and for upgrading of research infrastructure and establishing new laboratories in 2017 alone, in addition to the previously announced budget.

And of course activities of our R&D centres should be closely integrated with the educational system, the economy, and high-tech companies. We must turn our research groundwork into successful commercial products. Actually, that has always been a problem for us: it takes a very long time for research results to be applied in practice, and sometimes they even… It’s not just a current issue, and not even a Soviet one, it was the same in the Russian Empire too. We must break this tendency, and we can do that. To deal with this problem we’ve launched the National Technology Initiative two years ago, which is supposed to help Russian companies and products to secure leading positions in the most promising future markets.

Dear colleagues, all I was talking about, all these priorities are included in the Russian S&T Development Strategy. The decree on its approval is signed”.

The President instructed to design a long-term Russian S&T Development Strategy at the regular meeting of the Science and Education on 24 June, 2015.

According to the Strategy’s official website, more than 3,000 experts contributed to development of this document, including researchers representing various scientific domains and leading Russian R&D organisations, together with representatives of industrial enterprises and high-tech innovative companies.

To discuss various aspects of science, technology and innovation development in the Russian Federation, HSE hosted five conferences in 2015-2016, whose results were taken into account during development of the Strategy.

Also, 10 work groups were established in the course of the Strategy development, with HSE’s methodological and organisational support. Their results were reflected in analytical reports which have been applied in drafting the Strategy:

  • Russia’s Target Future: the S&T Aspect
  • Forward-oriented Research and a “Lift” for Ideas
  • An STI Career in Russia
  • R&D Infrastructure, Big Science, and International S&T Cooperation
  • Territorial Organisation of Research, Development, and Production
  • Science in Industry
  • Emergence of Research-Intensive Industries
  • Science and Society
  • Science and the State