Provision of Buildings for Research and Development Organisations in Russia
The new issue of the newsletter "Science, Technology, Innovation" series presents a specialized survey conducted by the HSE Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge commissioned by Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation.
During the period of 2011–2015 the proportion of Research and Development (R&D) organisations which possess buildings increased by 17.4% from 2219 to 2604 units. However, against the background of the general increase of these organisations, their provision with buildings remains practically at the same level: the proportion of organisations provided with buildings has increased from 59.2 to 62.6%. One out of every five organisations (21.7%) has a buildings, specially designed and built for its specific research teams.
Research institutes and experienced (experimental) enterprises are best provided with buildings: they have more than 80% of them, about one-third of these organisations have in possession specialised buildings. Engineering, design-and-engineering and technology organisations have a bit lower figures — 75.2% of all the organisations possess buildings, and only 30% of them possess specialised buildings.
In general, R&D organisations have in possess 46310 buildings, nearly a quarter of them (23%) — specialised buildings; 2% are historical and cultural monuments.
Nearly two-thirds (62%) of buildings are owned by research institutions; 15.9% by institutions of higher education; 11% by engineering, design-and-engineering and technology organisations.
The availability of the organisation’s own building allows to create a comfortable environment for the implementation of research activities, but entails additional obligations and costs, as a result organisations don’t often occupy whole building, but only a few rooms. During the period of 2011–2015 the total area of room space occupied by the R&D sector increased by 7.9% and amounted to 74.1 million square meters in 2015 and more than half of them falls on the research institutes, the fifth part — on the educational organization of higher education.
Some progress has been made in the area of technical status of all the premises occupied by the R&D organisations: in four years the area of buildings, premises, requiring major repairs, decreased by 20%; the amount of the buildings in a poor condition decreased by 30%. In 2015, the total area of the buildings that require an overhaul amounted to 11.1%, buildings in poor condition — 1%, whereas the same figures in 2011 showed 15 and 1.6%, respectively.
R&D organisations use floor area of buildings, premises primarily for professional purposes (91.9%), less than 5% of the area are given for rent. The total area of the premises which are given for rent decreased 1,4 times in comparison with 2011.
By Irina Tarasenko