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Thursday, 26 November, 1998, 11:42 GMT
Science in a cold climate
Presenter James Proctor outside Akademgorodok's Palace of Science
By Graham Hill
"I'm leaving Russia. I see no prospect here and I'm looking for a new life for me and my family - particularly for my family..." Leo Volordarsky is a research chemist in Akademgorodok, a 'science city' of 30 institutes established in 1957 in western Siberia. He's leaving for a new post in the United States, and taking his wife, their 16-year-old son Boris and his elderly father-in-law with him. Russian science is in a critical condition, he says - maybe it will recover, but at 62 he's sorry, he just can't wait.
Back in 1957, science was the jewel in the crown of Soviet Communism, the technological cutting edge which - so the theory went - would lead to the Soviet Union outpacing the United States in economic growth. Through science, went the slogan, would come not only international prestige but also economic abundance.
In Akademgorodok, as elsewhere in Russia, science is having to undergo a revolution. Firstly, it has had to convert from mostly military to peaceful research. And secondly, it is having to switch from state to private funding and get used to foreign collaboration. For many, the Vektor Centre for Virology and Biotechnology, neat Akademgorodok, provides a model for the way forward. It is widely believed to have been a centre for the Soviet germ warfare programme, relying on defence spending for every rouble. Officials insists it only worked on antidotes to biological attack from the West. But in the past few years it has managed to switch to pharmaceuticals and has won orders for diagnostic tests for HIV and hepatitis. Today a remarkable 80% of its income is derived from commercial contracts with western as well as Russian drugs companies.
Is anyone helping? To all intents and purposes, no. No-one expects anything from the federal government in Moscow and no assistance is being given by the regional Siberian administration. Several western projects have already done their terms, packed up and left. Now the only Western presence helping science in Akademgorodok is the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. But since it came to the nearby city of Novosibirsk in 1996 with a budget of 32 million dollars to spend, it has only felt able to invest in one single science project. Officials speak of their disappointment and frustration., The reason they have been unable to do more is the bank's tough mandate. Officials in Novosibirsk are allowed to deal with the scientific institutes only if they become companies - with the prospect of turning profits. The bank can't help an individual scientist, even one with a very bright idea. There's no financial 'seed corn' help, no 'incubators' for struggling scientists.
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