Research in provincial universities as a new stage of science development in Russia

摘要

The tremendous social and political changes that culminated in the Soviet Union's dissolution had a great impact on the Russian science community. Due to the Russian transformation to a market economy a new model of R&D emerged on the basis of the higher education system (R&D in universities). This paper is part of a project, the main goal of which is to analyze the impact on competitive funding on R&D in provincial universities; the distribution of funding by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research; and level of cross-sectoral and international collaboration. The paper gives a descriptive overview on R&D conducted at the 380 provincial universities, 1,230 research projects and 11,771 individuals. Our data demonstrated a positive tendency in demographic statistics in provinces. A map of intra-national collaboration taking place in 1997-99 in provincial universities situated in different economic regions was designed. Our data show a strong collaboration inside of the regions, which is an important factor of sustainability. Russian international collaboration depended heavily on financial support of foreign counties.