Russian Foundation of Basic Research

Department of Basic Foundations of Engineering Sciences

A.V.Kirillin, D.S.Mikhatulin

Russian Foundation of Basic Research

32a, Leninsky prospect, Moscow, 119991, Russia

1. Introduction

We believe that it is erroneous to tell about activities of department of basic foundations of engineering sciences (BFES) of Russian Foundation of Basic Research (RFBR) without at least some brief description of RFBR history and interaction of BFES department with seven other departments which had been established earlier. Therefore the authors would like to remind some general issues of fund operation and to produce their own interpretation of necessity to establish new BFES department which hereinafter is the main subject of the paper.

2. History of RFBR establishment, main problems and methods of their solution

RFBR was established according to Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No.426 issued at 27 April 1992 on initiative of the most prominent Russian scientists.

Russian Foundation of Basic Research is a self-governed state non-profit organization in the form of federal institution which is under the authority of Russian Government and aims at support of scientific and research works in all directions on competitive basis establishing new relationships between the state and the scientists.

RFBR establishment meant forthcoming of absolutely new form of organization for Russian science which gave the scientists wider opportunities for creative self-expression and let them choose the topics on their own, form creative teams, and concentrate the funds on the most promising works.

RFBR was at different times headed by the prominent Russian scientists: director and organizer of the Fund, Academician A.A.Gonchar, Academicians V.E.Fortov, M.V.Alfimov, etc. Since June 2008 Russian Foundation of Basic Research has been managed by Academician V.Ya.Panchenko.

During the period from 1992 to 2008 RFBR conducted sixteen cycles of competition on all the categories of natural sciences and humanities. RFBR interacted with the scientists from over 4000 Russian organizations. RFBR supported over 4500 scientific conferences and workshops in Russia in 1993-2008. RFBR grants enabled 13000 Russian scientists to participate in conferences abroad. RFBR supported about 3000 publishing projects and publication of 2100 books in 1993-2008.

By 2005 general number of competitions conducted by the Fund had reached 30 including 11 basic, 11 international and 8 regional ones. Implementation of concepts which were new for our country enabled to reveal and support the most talented and active part of scientists who carried out the first-rate basic researches in scientific institutions of state academies, universities, and higher schools which among other works dealt with applied research.

The main task of the Fund according to its Regulations is to conduct competitive selection of the best scientific projects submitted by the scientists on their initiative and to provide organizational and financial support of the latter ones.

Russian Foundation of Basic Research supports the basic researches in the following main areas of knowledge:

P        Mathematics, mechanics, and informatics (01);

P        Physics and astronomy (02);

P        Chemistry (03);

P        Biology and medicine (04);

P        Earth sciences (05);

P        Sciences dealing with people and society (06);

P        Information technologies and computation systems (07);

P        Basic foundations of engineering sciences (08).

According to the Fund Regulations, all decisions about awarding grants to support one or another basic research project are made only after examination carried out by independent experts and councils of experts consisting of active scientists who are authoritative specialists in their fields of fundamental knowledge.

One of the ground concepts according to which RFBR operates is a targeted support: the Fund supports not the whole organization but a group of scientists who conduct the very project approved of by RFBR experts.

A substantial concept of RFBR operation is complete transparency. Normative documents of the Fund, announcements about competitions and results of the latter ones, instructions for competitors for grants are published and available for everyone who is interested in them.

The Fund grants financial assets on non-repayable and non-commercial basis. Condition sine qua non for granting by the Fund is an obligation given by a scientist, a group of scientists, or a scientific institute to publish the results of research carried out with the Fund grant.

To attain the main target, i.e. support basic scientific researches, the Fund:

-         develops and approves the procedure of consideration of submitted projects, procedure of examination of projects and proposals;

-         selects the projects on competitive basis;

-         realizes financial supportљ of selected projects and activities and controls the drafts on funds;

-         supports international scientific collaboration in the field of basic scientific researches including grants for joint scientific research projects;

-         supports access of Russian scientists to databases of the world largest publishing houses;

-         prepares, issues and distributed informational and other materials on Fund's activities;

-         participates in generation of proposals dealing with public scientific and research policy in the field of basic scientific researches.

Announcements about competitions, results of competitive selection, Fund's decisions on granting the projects and events, and other materials on Fund's activities are published in press and distributed via electronic mass media. Standing group of specialists was organized at RFBR which exercises on-line support of the Fund in Internet. The website contains all the information required for work: rules for filing applications, specified terms of beginning and completion of competitions, contact details of Fund's senior officials, etc.

It should be noted that RFBR has much in common with relevant funds which support scientists in developed capitalist countries. RFBR successfully collaborates with some of them. The majority of these funds have a department called "engineering department" which accepts applications that include both the main fundamental part and applied, "engineering", component. Considering the situation and allowing for a great number of applications of specified type submitted to RFBR, the Fund Council made a decision on establishment of department of fundamental basic foundations of engineering sciences in 2005.

3. RFBR Department of basic foundations of engineering sciences

Like every department that supports grants in certain science branch an expert council (EC) was established in BFES department.

At present (2008) it consists of 66 experts. The Council is headed by Academician G.A.Filippov and consists of 6 sections). One should note that 2 academicians and 6 corresponding members are in EC of BFES department. The sections are named according to real directions of their work and hardly need to be further explained.

The authors will give rather extensive statistics on the number of submitted and accepted projects.

We would like to make just one remark. Emergence of BFES department turned out to be quite sought for this follows from the facts:

Large number of applications is submitted to the department mainly by organizations representing powerful technical higher schools of Russia.

The number of applications submitted to mathematics (mechanics) and physics departments has not decreased.

Thus, new stratum of scientists got involved into cooperation with RFBR, and this is rather significant.

In fact during the first years after BFES department establishment the number of projects submitted in the framework of the main direction of the Fund (on initiative "a") reached the level of physical and biological departments that are foremost in this sense.

Further some figures are given that comprehensively describe BFES department:

BFES department classifier (Appendix 1).

The classifier contains (per sections, from 08-100 to 08-600) the scientific content of applications that were accepted by department for examination and accordingly the content of projects accepted for granting.

As one can see in classifier the subjects are quite diverse. Therefore it is difficult to divide directions into less and more significant ones. They are almost equivalent.

Concluding our message and readers' acquaintance with the new RFBR department (department of basic foundations of engineering sciences) we once again insist on our opinion that establishment of the department turned out to be a success and the first years of its operation completely confirm this statement.