Through the pages of newspapers of scientific centers

Valentin Parmon:

"There should be a unified system
of state orders in the Union State"

During the 9th Forum of the Regions of Belarus and Russia in Grodno, Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Chairman of Siberian Branch of RAS Academician Valentin Nikolaevich Parmon made a report on the "Role of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Ensuring the Technological Competitiveness of the Union State".

Head of SB RAS, at the request of the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Academician Aleksandr Mikhaylovich Sergeev, participated in the work of the section "The common scientific and technological space of Russia and Belarus as a factor in ensuring global competitiveness and security of the Union State". "The discussion moderated by the member of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation Liliya Salavatovna Gumerova and the member of the Belarusian Council of the Republic (an analogue of the Federation Council. - ed. note) Kalina Viktorovna Kaputskaya turned out to be interesting, productive and problematic, there were no sharp corners," Valentin Parmon shared. "Speaking, I emphasized that in the current situation, Russia and Belarus are in rapid convergence of the priorities of scientific and technological development and even faster - the awareness of critical industries that require the transition to domestic developments and backlogs. These are microelectronics, low-tonnage chemistry and catalysis, machine tool building, agriculture, pharmacology and healthcare."

V.N.Parmon called the forthcoming opening of a new plant for the production of oil refining catalysts in Omsk one of the points secured by the Russian Academy of Sciences for achieving Russian technological sovereignty. "It will produce products based on technologies developed at the Novosibirsk Institute of Catalysis (FRC "The Boreskov Institute of Catalysis of SB RAS" - ed. note)," Chairman of SB RAS specified. "Belarus is extremely interested in our catalysts, since it does not have scientific schools in this area and, accordingly, its own catalyst production, while having capacities for oil refining and petrochemistry."

Academician V.Parmon spoke about several other major projects involving Belarusian and Siberian scientists. The most ambitious of them is the design of new processing tools based on polycrystalline diamonds from the Popigai crater in the Siberian Arctic. This is a raw material with extremely high cutting and abrasive characteristics that is not found anywhere else in the world. "We unite competencies specific to Siberia and Belarus," Head of SB RAS emphasized. "From our side, these are geology, geophysics and structural analysis of feedstock and our colleagues supplement this set with advanced materials science and mechanical engineering. The need to develop cooperation between SB RAS and NASB in this project is quite obvious and it will only have to grow as it approaches industrial designs."

NASB, Roskosmos, RAS and Siberian academic institutions are involved in the Russian-Belarusian project Kosmodozor for total monitoring of forest fires. "Timely detection and localization of their foci will certainly give a great economic effect," Valentin Parmon considers. "The Belarusian side has good developments and its own satellite constellation, the Siberian Branch involved the Irkutsk Branch of SB RAS headed by Academician Igor Vyacheslavovich Bychkov, V.E.Zuev Institute of Atmospheric Optics SB RAS and V.N. Sukachev Institute of Forest SB RAS as part of the Federal Research Center "Krasnoyarsk Science Center SB RAS". Another major project where we work together is the 4+ generation synchrotron radiation source SKIF that is under construction in the science city of Koltsovo. Among the six stations of the first stage, it is possible to develop the BelSi station for joint experiments."

Valentin Parmon emphasized that there were not only professional, but also human bonds between Belarusian and Russian scientists, Heads of NASB and RAS over the long years of cooperation. "It seems to me that they mostly manifest themselves in communication with Siberians," Head of SB RAS believes. "We use literally every minute to work together in any conditions. So, three hours before leaving Minsk for Grodno, we agreed on the participation of a representative delegation of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus in the international forum "Technoprom-2022" in August this year and on holding a joint meeting of the Presidiums of RAS and NASB in autumn in Minsk. And on the sidelines of the Grodno forum, we discussed the possibility of replenishing a small herd of bison at our station in Cherga with animals from Belarus."

The Chairman of SB RAS also named the key issue in the formation of a common scientific and technological space in Russia and Belarus - the lack of an agreed concept of such a space to this day. "The issue of a solidarity concept for the development of science and knowledge-intensive sectors of the economy within the framework of the Union State was raised a year ago at a meeting of the Inter-Academic Council of RAS and NASB and relevant draft documents were prepared," V.Parmon recalled. "But in this and in other situations, the term for agreeing on all proposals is impossible to be long, from a year to three to five years. The same can be said about the entry into the current scientific and technical programs of the US and the formation of new ones. Apart from bureaucratic red tape (as a rule, in the Russian federal authorities), the acceleration and expansion of cooperation is hampered by the fact that only structures that have the right to issue state orders can act as initiators. If in Belarus this is NASB, then in Russia, alas, it is not RAS with its status as just a state institution, but federal executive bodies.

Valentin Parmon believes that within the framework of the US, a unified system of state orders for research and development should be introduced, "Any Russian entity should be entitled to act as a customer in relation to a Belarusian contractor and vice versa." Also, Head of SB RAS emphasized the relevance of forming two new programmes of the Union State. "We need to allocate special resources to support academic mobility," Valentin Nikolayevich said. "Previously, RFBR allocated some funds for internships and training, today the position is not closed by anyone. It's a shame that students, graduate students and scientific youth of the two allied countries practically do not communicate live." Chairman of SB RAS called fundamental research the subject of another desirable program of the US, "The documents of the Union State provide for funding only applied work, while in the search for new knowledge we have no less points of contact with our Belarusian colleagues. It is gratifying that the final document of the forum in Grodno included a recommendation to the governments of Russia and Belarus, together with NASB and RAS to work out the issue of preparing and approving the program of fundamental research of the Union State and the mechanisms for its implementation."

"Science in Siberia",
5 July, 2022