Russian Academy of Sciences system is obsolete, will be reformed – Medvedev

(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 27, 2013) Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said the system of the Russian Academy of Sciences needs to be reformed, adding an appropriate draft law is being drawn up.

Medvedev told a government meeting that the Cabinet will consider reforming the system of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the appropriate draft federal law.

“Russia now has six state academies, including the so-called ‘big’ Academy of sciences. They conduct important research and continue making a big contribution to the development of domestic science. However, the system for managing these structures dates back to the 1930s and the 1940s and was formed under the influence of subjective factors and, of course, no longer fully meets the modern tasks of the country’s development,” the prime minister said.

“This system has needed improvement for a long time. This issue is being discussed,” Medvedev said.

“It is important to enable scientists to do scientific work and research and rid them of the functions of property and utilities management, which are foreign to them,” he said.

“Of course, academic science should provide full-fledged expert support to the state in priority areas and coordinate scientific work that is currently being conducted in our country,” Medvedev said.

The bill, which the government will discuss on Thursday, “contains specific mechanisms and procedures governing the reorganization of state academies of sciences,” he said.