Rumors of a massive return of Russian scientists turned out to be exaggerated

Novye Izvestia decided to ask the scientists themselves whether this is true. The reality was not as bleak as it was 20 years ago, but there has never been a massive return.

Yelena Ivanova, Natalia Seibil

Alexander Kuleshov, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, rector of Skoltech , does not hide the fact that his university occupies a special place in Russian science. Scientists with extensive experience in the best universities in the world teach here. 20% of teachers do not speak Russian - they are Canadians, Americans, Germans. The rest have Russian as their native language, but there are several citizenships. It would seem that here it is, a living example, confirming the words of the chairman of the Dvorkovich foundation. Yes, but in a separate Skolkovo - says academician Kuleshov. Scientists on a mass scale do not return to Russia - this is a fact.

Professor, Doctor of Biological Sciences Konstantin Severinov proposes to define in terms:

- What do you mean "massively"? In the cartoon about a monkey and a parrot, the monkey thought that "a bunch" is when there are more than three. When Arkady (Dvorkovich) speaks "in large numbers", he does not speak about specific numbers and generally appeals to what is happening at Skoltech. But firstly, Skoltech is a special case, and secondly, the number of applications for professorships from foreigners from the first world countries and from representatives of the scientific diaspora, compared to the early days of close interaction with MIT, has greatly decreased.

Two years ago, the World Bank published a report on migration and brain drain in Europe and Central Asia. 7.4% of the total population left Russia. If we exclude pensioners from 144 million, then a little less than 10% of citizens of working age and children left the country. Two thirds of those leaving have a higher education. A survey by the Boston Consulting Group showed that one in two scientists wants to work abroad.

Where scientists are going can be found out not only by the border service at Sheremetyevo or any other international airport, but also by the user of the Scopus or Web of Science databases of scientific publications. For example, a study by the German Max Planck Institute in collaboration with Alexander Subbotin, a graduate student of the Higher School of Modern Social Sciences at Lomonosov Moscow State University, on determining scientific mobility based on bibliometric data, established that, since 1996, the number of Russian scientists who left for the United States, Germany, Great Britain and France, for all 24 years, significantly exceeded the number of those who left these countries and returned to their homeland. Most of them left the country in 2001, then by 2015 the number of “returnees” increased, and after 2015 the number of publications from abroad increased again.

Academician Kuleshov says the problem is not that scientists are leaving. The problem is they don't return:

- A person should feel what the world science is. But they have to come back. If they leave for an internship, I am all for it. It's not just about money, it's only one part of the problem. There is a second, more significant part. I always give one example: why doesn't Ovechkin play for SKA? What, they could not give him the same money? Surely they could. The fact is that a person who feels his potential wants to realize himself in the Higher League. If this isn't the Major League, you can't tempt him with money.

The salaries of scientists in Russia and in the West are incomparable. Skoltech rector Kuleshov says that their university salaries are quite competitive with Western ones. Theoretically, Moscow State University and HSE could also appoint fairly high salaries for a small number of professors, but this cannot be done on a massive scale.

Scientists need more than the money they receive every month. It is much more important for them to obtain research funding. Since 2010, the mega-grants program has been working quite successfully in the country. The government then allocated 12 billion rubles to finance science until 2020 and extended this program until 2023. Each project could receive up to 150 million rubles - an amount unprecedented for the new Russia, and not only for her. True, since then, the budget for each project has been reduced to 30-50 million, and the exchange rate of the dollar, the currency for which equipment and reagents are bought, has tripled. But nevertheless, the sums for Russian scientists still look decent.

- Every year, the mega-grants program allows several dozen prominent scientists to organize laboratories and maintain these laboratories for three to five years, sometimes being present in Russia for no more than four months a year. About half of the winners of the megagrant competition are representatives of the Russian scientific diaspora. Some laboratories continue to exist after the end of support for the mega-grant. There are a dozen mirror laboratories, when the head simultaneously manages a laboratory abroad and in Russia, usually spending most of the time abroad. In addition to these examples, in my opinion, there is no question of any serious return, - says Konstantin Severinov.

The decision to move or not to move depends on what the person has there and what might be here. The lack of a large critical mass speaks against it, says Viktor Tarabykin, professor, director of the Institute of Neurobiology and the Charite clinic in Berlin.

Viktor Tarabykin graduated from the biomedical faculty of Second Honey (now Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University), defended his dissertation at the Research Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, and then left for Germany.

- In the decision to leave, the economic situation also played a role. But even if the economic situation would have been better at that moment, I would still have left, maybe for a short time, for 3-4 years, but the science that I wanted to study at that time simply did not exist. I wanted to get access to more modern technologies, to get to the forefront of science. Well, the desire to change places, to see other countries - all this was also present, - says the scientist.

Viktor Tarabykin found a job right away, chose one of the 9 laboratories that invited him, and he went not to Germany, but to the laboratory. Having changed three jobs, he received a professor 12 years ago. Now he runs his Institute for Neurobiology at the Charite in Berlin. His institute studies the genetic basis for the development of the cerebral cortex, including the genetic basis of diseases that lead to disorders in the structure and function of the cerebral cortex. In addition, Viktor has two laboratories in Russia, he receives Russian grants and is active in the country. Several times he was offered to move back. But Russia does not have what Berlin has: there is not a large number of laboratories of a very good level that do world science. When scientists work in such an environment, it automatically raises their own level:

- Secondly, there is always in your environment, on the next street, on the next floor, half an hour away, someone who has the most modern technologies in the neighboring areas. And third, there are always some seminars, scientists from other countries like to come. If you work in an interdisciplinary industry, but science is good where there are many representatives from different fields. There are no such places in Russia. I must say that in the West they are not in every city, in Germany there are several of them, in America there are several.

It is very difficult to do biomedicine in Russia. Ordering reagents takes several months, and they cost significantly more. The bureaucracy is fierce, there is no such thing in the West, the scientist says. Ordering reagents is a problem. Getting equipment is a problem. But the main thing is the lack of stability and tough guarantees:

- In Germany I am a professor and a government official. When I get a position of professor, it is not so easy to get it; the state guarantees me a life-long job. It guarantees that nothing happens to me. The guarantees are very tough. The rules of the game are known and they are very clear. Neither the dean nor the president of the faculty can just fire me. And in Russia no one can give such guarantees to anyone. Even if people come to me and say that we want you to become a vice-rector or rector of a university, no one will ever give any guarantees. I will have to give up everything that I have developed and created over the years, infrastructure, a large team, and so on, and come to Russia with an absolute lack of guarantees. And it is very difficult to go for it.

According to academician Kuleshov, there is a triad that will allow scientists to return: a decent salary, a critical mass of people who understand you, equipment. But then comes the fourth factor, which is called life:

- Life is much more difficult. We must understand that returning is often associated with different life circumstances. For example, children go to school. In this case, talking to the person about the return is practically useless. Because there is a huge problem with children. They may speak Russian, but they cannot read and write. If they are in the third or fourth grade, the problem is practically insoluble. A lot of everyday, everyday problems arise.

Therefore, it is much more important that young scientists do not leave, says Kuleshov.

Konstantin Severinov says that in the area of his scientific interest - life sciences - most university graduates try to enter Western postgraduate studies in order to integrate into international science as early as possible and begin to follow an understandable career ladder:

- A person who decided to graduate from graduate school here shoots himself in the foot, because from the point of view of scientific performance, and this is what is important for future career growth, four years spent in Russia are not equal to four years spent in America, Germany or anywhere else- something else.

Viktor Tarabykin disagrees. He says that he sees in the best universities in Russia significantly more good students in biology departments than in the West, although he makes a reservation that maybe he just sees the best. But we are talking about the best - those who should move the world science forward. Rector Kuleshov proudly lists the leading universities that take his students with great pleasure - Oxford, Princeton, Stanford:

- But in general, unfortunately, the outflow continues. And this is an outflow of the young and talented. The country is getting older, poorer and dumber, sadly. We are trying to counter this. On our local slice, it works. But, as I already said, there should be a hundred such Skoltechs in the country, at least fifty, then we will change the situation.