Education and Science Ministry to spend 70 bln rubles on 1,000 labs in 7 years
MOSCOW. Nov 30 (Interfax) - The Russian Education and Science Ministry will spend approximately 70 billion rubles to open 1,000 research laboratories before 2020, Minister Dmitry Livanov told reporters on Friday.
"A total of 1,000 scientific collectives will receive grants for opening or developing laboratories in particular fields of knowledge. We want financing to be long-term, no less than five years," he said.
The grants will be received by internationally acclaimed scholars and young scientists. The laboratories manned by five to six persons will open at research institutes and higher educational establishments. Experts will select projects by bibliographic, scientometric and other parameters. Efficiency of projects will be evaluated by the number of published articles, participation in international conferences, the number of patents and commercialized products.
Annual allocations will amount to 10-20 million rubles per laboratory and 10 billion rubles per project for seven years, from 2014 to 2020. About 40-60% will be spent on salaries, and the indicator will reach 100% in humanitarian science laboratories.
About 200 laboratories will open in the first year, and about 150 per annum later on.
Funds will be assigned under the federal target program "Personnel" which the government may approve next spring. The contest for 1,000 scientific laboratories will be announced in fall 2013.
The ministry fears a shortfall in viable scientific projects.
