p*****c 发帖数: 20445 | 1 合并俄罗斯科学院,俄罗斯农业科学院和俄罗斯医学科学院;剥离科学院的房地产管理
权;取消通讯成员和院士的区别。。。
话说中国现在的这个科研体制和俄罗斯完全一样啊。。。当然改革得早一些,现在中科
院研究所应该比俄罗斯科学院的研究所效率高得多。。。
New Law Would Dilute and Diminish Science Academy
Vladimir Pokrovsky
+ Author Affiliations
Vladimir Pokrovsky is a writer in Moscow.
MOSCOW—When some of the biggest names in Russia's scientific community
elected Vladimir Fortov to lead the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) this
spring, they had great expectations that the physicist would infuse the
august institution with fresh blood and undertake long overdue reforms. Now
it seems that Fortov may not get that chance. At a press conference here
last week, Russia's science minister, Dmitry Livanov, who for months has
derided RAS as ineffective, unveiled a draft law that would merge it with
two other science academies, strip it of control of its extensive real
estate holdings, and abolish any distinction between full-fledged
academicians and scientists of a lower rank, called corresponding members.
The radical transformation of the 289-year-old RAS is on hold for the moment
however. The science ministry had initially asked Russia's lower house of
parliament to fast-track debate on the law, but later agreed to have the
Duma take a final vote on the matter after its summer break. To the chagrin
of scientists who may have hoped to see the law derailed, it has backing
from the country's top leaders. Speaking to RIA Novosti news agency last
week, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev explained that the law is meant
to help scientists concentrate. "It's important to allow the scholars to
focus on science and research and spare them the irrelevant function of
managing real estate," he said.
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Merge and acquire. Science minister Dmitry Livanov has not hidden his low
regard for RAS.
CREDIT: MICHAEL KLIMENTYEV/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Many scientists are now too blinded by rage over the draft law to focus on
their work. The legislation is a "national tragedy," fumes Alexandr Spirin,
an academician and former director of the Institute of Protein Research in
Pushchino. "The academy will lose the independence it has enjoyed since the
time of Peter the Great," the czar who created RAS in 1724, he says.
Under the draft law, RAS would merge with two more-specialized bodies, the
Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the Russian Academy of Medical
Sciences. The law would also establish an Agency for RAS Scientific
Institutions that will manage the academy's real estate holdings and
property, leasing of which has often brought it much-needed funds. And it
would promote all corresponding members to full academicians—"eliminating
the scientific elite," Spirin says—and impose a 3-year moratorium on
election of new academicians.
The law would increase the stipend paid to academy members significantly,
but that hasn't mollified some researchers who bristle at the way that the
law was drawn up. "They didn't even consult with us," says physicist Alexei
Khokhlov, vice-rector of Lomonosov Moscow State University and head of the
science ministry's Council on Science. Such stealth and unveiling of the law
by press conference are "disgusting," says Mikhail Gelfand, a
bioinformatics professor and a member of the Ministry of Education and
Science's Public Council. "Many rights were declared for researchers, but in
reality everything was decided without their consent."
Fortov told Science that the draft law must be postponed and discussed by
the scientific community, but declined further comment. Livanov could not be
reached for comment before Science went to press. Rumors are rampant about
the motives that may be driving a law that many scientists feel would neuter
the academy. The stark bottom line, says Mikhail Ugryumov, an academician
at the Koltzov Institute of Developmental Biology here, may be apathy of
Russia's leadership toward science. "It just looks like science is not among
the priorities in Russia," he says. |
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