"Russian centers will host world-class foreign scientists"
17 scientists from the USA, Italy, China, India, Iran, Israel and Turkey will come to Russia to work, who will lead research on the "mega-grants" of the Russian Science Foundation. They will study extreme weather events in the Arctic, create effective cancer drugs, antimicrobial agents, and other fundamental and applied tasks. Alexander Klimenko, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Chairman of the Scientific and Technological Council of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Izvestia in an interview.
"Projects of scientists from 40 countries were submitted for the competition"
— Which countries actively participated in the competition? Are there any trends in international activity that can be used to find out how the scientific landscape is changing?
— Projects led by leading scientists from 40 countries, including China, India, Iran, Belarus, Kazakhstan, the USA, Italy, France and others, were submitted to the competition. Despite the obvious trend towards the development of close cooperation between Russia and the East, with the BRICS countries, the list of applications for competitions includes many countries with which we have suspended relations. I also consider it important that scientists from the CIS countries, in particular Belarus and Kazakhstan, applied for the competition.
— Who will come to Russia, what kind of scientists are they?
— Among the winners are representatives of the USA, Italy, China, India, Iran, Israel and Turkey, a total of 17 people. For example, two researchers, including those of Russian origin, will come from America: one will work with employees of Lomonosov Moscow State University on a new generation of liquid and solid electrolytes for metal-ion batteries, the other will go to the Tomsk Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences to develop a hardware and technological complex for modifying the surface of cardiovascular medical devices.
— Where will the rest of the scientists work in Russia?
— On the basis of scientific and scientific educational organizations. These are metropolitan universities and research institutes — Lomonosov Moscow State University, Skoltech, Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University and regional universities — Belgorod State University, Nosov Magnitogorsk State Technical University, Institute of High-Current Electronics SB RAS and others.
Russian scientific centers will host world-class foreign scientists.
— Tell us about the projects, what goals and objectives do scientists face within the framework of these grants?
— The winning projects cover almost all fields of scientific knowledge: from physics and chemistry to medicine and agriculture. Fundamental work is related to an in-depth study of the mechanisms of aging, extreme weather events in the Arctic, the creation of effective cancer drugs and antimicrobial agents, as well as new materials in the field of metallurgy and telecommunications.
As for projects focused on applied results, I would like to mention the creation of high-strength steels for biomedical and engineering applications, as well as an innovative cell therapy platform for the treatment of autoimmune diseases.
— How will such a platform work?
— Scientists plan to create a new type of genetically modified immune cells capable of purposefully destroying the cells of the immune system responsible for the development of the disease.
To increase the accuracy of the impact, it is planned to introduce special structures (CAR) that allow several types of cells to be affected at once. This approach will reduce the risk of relapses and increase the safety of treatment.
— What other projects would you highlight?
— Another example of a winning project: under the leadership of Professor Wang Lin from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a team of researchers based at the A.m. Obukhov Institute of Physics and Technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences will solve a major scientific problem in the field of monitoring and forecasting the state of the environment in the Arctic.
How do climate changes affect the appearance of tornadoes and other meteorological anomalies in the Arctic region and Northern Eurasia? How can the predictability of the state of the snow and ice cover in the seas of the Arctic Ocean, including along the Northern Sea Route, be improved? These and other questions will be answered by researchers not only from the IFA RAS, but also from the Hydrometeorological Center of Russia, the G.I. Marchuk Institute of Computational Mathematics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow State University, as well as the Institute of Computational Mathematics and Mathematical Geophysics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
— Why should our research teams involve Western scientists?
— The goal of the RNF's Megagrant program is to create new world—class laboratories in universities and scientific organizations. Attracting foreign scientists to the country stimulates this process, helps accelerate the implementation of breakthrough research and development, as well as the training of scientific personnel. We believe that combining the potential of Russian researchers and the competencies of foreign experts will bring our science to a fundamentally new level.
— How do the RNF megagrant contests led by foreign scientists differ from those implemented by the Ministry of Education and Science?
— The main difference is that we have held two independent competitions at once: for basic research and for applied projects.
In the first case, in addition to publishing scientific results in peer-reviewed scientific publications, we are waiting for the formation of a strong team with the participation of young people, to whom the invited scientist will transfer his valuable knowledge and work experience. In the case of a research competition with an applied bias, we expect the development of technology prototypes in the interests of a qualified customer who has formed a technological proposal based on the needs of the company.
— Are we talking about finished products or technology?
— Projects with an applied nature should show a very specific result: to develop prototypes of technologies in the interests of a qualified customer.
A total of 14 projects in the field of basic research were supported based on the results of the examination. The amount of one grant will range from 20 to 50 million rubles annually. The support period is five years with the possibility of extension for another three years.
As part of the applied research competition, qualified customers submitted their technological proposals, which were then submitted by applications from research teams. Three projects have been supported. The amount of one grant will range from 20 to 80 million rubles annually, with mandatory co-financing from a qualified customer in the amount of at least 10% of the grant amount.
"There is an obvious movement towards applied research"
— Tell us, is the support system for scientists in general changing, what trends can be noted? How and what should we come to?
— There is an obvious movement towards applied research that will meet the demands of the time. For the third year, the foundation has been supporting such projects: it collects technological proposals from customer companies, selects performers for these tasks, and monitors the progress of work. They are aimed at solving various tasks, including those formed within the framework of national technological leadership projects. But we started by creating software for the design and manufacturing of microelectronics products, as well as equipment and materials for its production. The first results are already available here. Currently, the foundation supports 84 applied projects.
— How is the role of private capital in supporting science changing? Can we give any examples of successful cooperation between scientists and business?
— Our grant range of pilot, focused and applied research has shown that the interaction of science and business can be productive and bring real benefits to the country if such cooperation is properly built.
For example, last year, the pilot project of JSC Svetlana—Rost on the development of the basic technology of high-power microwave transistors on gallium nitride for communication systems was completed. Many experts were skeptical about this technology, but researchers have shown that it is already available in Russia. The results are currently being commercialized, and the process of redesigning the modules of the customer, UPKB Detail JSC, has begun to replace their active components with the developed crystals. Earlier this year, the results of the project were presented to the President of the country.
— So the business is ready to invest in the future?
— Today, technology companies are undoubtedly interested in developing their production, including through collaboration with scientific organizations. Already, 122 organizations responded to our first call to submit technological proposals for the microelectronics competition, which sent 181 applications. This means that there are enough people willing to set tasks for science that can be supported not only by individual companies, but also by the state and society.
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