Reform directions

The changes needed to make Russian R&D efficient are extensive. The research and technological organizations should be more flexible, more competitive, and more responsive than they are today. Administrative barriers between branches and disciplines must be removed, and science and industry must integrate into new economic and legal organizations. Integrated activities could be accomplished through state research centers, centers of contractual research, technoparks, and financial and industrial groups. Establishments that currently make up the Academy and higher education sectors should be included in any process of restructuring.

R&D institutions should function independently within the science and tech-nology market. State bodies should be responsible for a limited number of tasks, especially the choice of state priorities in S&T, development and financing of gov-ernment S&T programs, and the support for a market infrastructure for technology transfer.

The most radical way of overcoming intersectoral barriers would be a complete withdrawal of R&D institutions from the branch management bodies. Such a radical change requires careful analysis of R&D institutions and their distribution according to the sector of science, the branch of economy, and their stage in the innovation cycle. On the basis of such an evaluation, the best structure for the new market conditions could be determined.

One possible way of reorganizing the network of R&D institutions is a system proposed by the MSTP in 1992. The proposal suggested changing the organization of research institutes and their financing according to their role in the national R&D effort. Large research institutes would be transformed into the centers of contractual research. These would be dominant in a given field of study, reflecting the economies of scale of staff, equipment, and facilities. They would become the

“incubators” of new knowledge and technologies. These centers would function in accordance with the government S&T programs, using their capacities to fill R&D orders from interested customers. They would also receive state financing to perform both basic and applied research. Close cooperation of such centers with higher education institutions would be required and would take various forms including joint research projects, exchange of researchers, and grants from the centers to universities for specific tasks.

Branch R&D institutions that perform R&D in a narrow field with a limited number of customers would be supported by a consortium of industrial users.

R&D institutions that are even more specialized (for example, performing R&D predominately for one enterprise) would be incorporated with its customer as a joint research and production company. Finally, industry R&D institutions with a high share of basic research, oriented to the acquisition of knowledge for general use, would become part of the system of academic science.

The Russian Academy of Sciences and branch academies of sciences should also be changed significantly, particularly with respect to applied R&D. The in-dependence of the Academy research institutes should be increased, perhaps by making them state R&D institutions. They should be financed by the government R&D budget on a competitive basis, with a focus on solving the most important S&T problems of the Russian Federation. The role of individual scientists and research teams could be enhanced by a system of competitive grants. Finally, the scientific councils of the Academy could act as boards of experts to advise the government.

This restructuring faces two difficulties. The sharp reduction of R&D financing has forced R&D organizations to concentrate their energies on survival in a tough market struggle with other institutes; the system is already burdened with strong conflicts. The other difficulty is that the government’s priorities and strategic purposes remain uncertain. Only since 1995 has the MSTP managed to execute some of the measures needed for restructuring the R&D system.

An important component of the new science policy is the formation of a network of state research centers (SRC). These institutes are to conduct world standard research, employ highly qualified staffs, and use state-of-the-art equipment. In 1993, legislation was adopted supporting the concept of the SRC along with state regulations on their activities and provisions for government financial support.

Measures in the SRC legislation include tax and customs privileges and decreased utility and communications tariffs.

By 1996, the status of SRC had been assigned to 61 research institutes (Exhibit A1.5). The MSTP, which manages this program, intends to pursue a rigorous selection policy in granting SRC status; the main criteria are conformity to the priorities of the state science and technology policy and the probable contribution of the institute’s work to the Russian economy. The SRC status of each center is to be reviewed every other year by the Governmental Commission on S&T Policy (see Chapter 7).

The government is currently asking its agencies to inventory their R&D net-work and to determine their organizational and legal forms, their main fields of research, and their privatization plans. The Governmental Commission on S&T Policy will consider the reports and will make decisions on revising the structure of the R&D institutions.

The value of these reports is limited by the sectoral organization and reliance on current officials to provide information. Early returns show that the reports contain only general information, the views of decision makers in sectoral departments, and requests for additional financing. None of the reports recognizes the fact that the new situation requires the creation of incentives for enterprise financing of R&D to lessen direct governmental support of R&D units.

Transformations also require changes in the attitudes of individual researchers.

A 1995 poll of researchers conducted by the Centre for Science Research and Statis-tics (CSRS) found that most researchers think Russian science and technology is falling far behind world standards and that professional qualifications of researchers are declining. More than 80 percent consider the lack of financing the main rea-son for the current crisis in R&D whereas only 36 percent list low demand for R&D. The old system of direct government support persists in the thinking of many researchers, despite the dramatic changes since 1991. Clearly the attitudes of researchers must change if the R&D system is to be more market oriented.