OREANDA-NEWS. May 5, 2009. Vladimir Putin: What is the current situation with national research universities?

Andrei Fursenko: Mr Putin, when you visited the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, you instructed your subordinates to complete the Government's resolution and to hold a national research university contest. We have prepared all the documents, agreed on the terms of the contest and criteria for selecting universities, and have even found the funding for it from what has been allocated to our ministry this year. We know where to get the funding for next year.

Since the programme is planned for five years, we have questions to the Ministry of Finance about its future funding. We have suggested that the framework for financing should be outlined. I understand that there may be different options for planning the budget. Nevertheless, we need to agree that this will be a priority project in any case and that we will support it. At any rate, we have prepared these documents and submitted them to the Government today. There are some differences with the Ministry of Finance, but I would appreciate it if you looked them over and gave us your support.

Vladimir Putin: How will this status change the situation for the universities?

Andrei Fursenko: First, the requirements will be much tougher. We believe that they need to reach a very high level in both education and research. We think that these universities need to ensure that research conducted there is at the same level as at our best universities and academic institutions.

In addition, we hope that additional funding will be allocated. At the same time, owing to this status and the internal changes in these universities, they will be able to attract more money from industry and business.

We are also hoping that these universities will be integrated much more closely with academic institutions. This will make it possible to set up a small network of universities, and not just in Moscow and St Petersburg but all over Russia. We would like the best students to enrol there.

Vladimir Putin: Will they be able to conduct research on a commercial basis?

Andrei Fursenko: I believe so. I know that out of about 60 universities that have won the national project almost all have increased their commercial research budgets. Moreover, the budgets of some of them match those of the leading academic institutions.

Vladimir Putin: How are you planning to address the conflict between the status of an institution and its commercial activity?

Andrei Fursenko: First, I believe that we will eventually tune up legislation on autonomous institutions. I think that every institution should become autonomous. However, at present there are direct contradictions in this area because today all state institutions have the right to work under contracts.

As you know, we sign contracts even as part of the federal targeted programmes. They are being signed with whoever will do the best job. It does not matter whether it is a state institution or a private company.

Vladimir Putin: What about research centres at universities?

Andrei Fursenko: We still have one unresolved problem here. It doesn't concern so much the research centres, which function like universities, as small businesses. This is a subject we have had many arguments about with our colleagues at the Ministry of Finance.

I have always believed that there are no contradictions here. We are talking about the formation of small businesses that have only one link with the universities: The latter have the right to transfer intellectual property to these companies. This does not erode state property or money but is a trigger mechanism for launching innovation processes.

I believe that this will encourage universities to be the first to become autonomous institutions because they want to achieve more, and to deal not only with intellectual property but also with some material resources. However, we can allow this only if they are registered as a different kind of entity.

Nevertheless, I believe that we should launch the process of this transformation without waiting for the adoption of standards for autonomous institutions because everything is ready. As you know, everyone, except the Ministry of Finance, has agreed that this is a positive process that will not lead to any abuses, which, regrettably, have also been discussed at length. I believe that we should make this step today.