The Siberian Circular Photon Source – the world’s finest source of such radiation in the mid-energy range – will facilitate scientific research using synchrotron radiation beams and provide ultra-precise data on the structure of matter and atomic-level processes, including ultra-fast phenomena. Users of the SKIF facility will enjoy access to all requisite infrastructure, with research conducted around the clock. The centre’s capabilities will support not only theoretical investigations but also practical applications, including the development of advanced pharmaceuticals, as well as the examination of ancient artefacts without jeopardising their structural integrity.
* * *
President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues.
Today, we are holding another meeting of the Council for Science and Education. The issues on our agenda are systemic and fundamental. We will discuss concrete decisions and mechanisms that will enable us to significantly accelerate and drive forward the development of future technologies.
To this end, it is imperative, first and foremost, that we address our priority objectives and effectively integrate Russia’s strategic scientific assets, in particular, our research schools and advanced digital computing resources, alongside the unique bioresource collections established by Nikolai Vavilov and other eminent Russian scientists – collections which, if memory serves, Peter the Great began assembling in 1714, I believe, in St Petersburg, at the Kunstkamera.
Remark: The Apothecary Garden.
Vladimir Putin: Quite right, the Apothecary Garden. Later, Nikolai Vavilov made an outstanding and truly world-class contribution. This endeavour continued to advance during the Soviet period. It is worth recalling the era of the Great Patriotic War, when scientists in Leningrad starved to death, yet did not consume a single grain, not a single potato tuber from these collections. All of this was amassed over centuries and decades, and handed down from generation to generation.
Of course, there is a wide network of megascience-class installations that can, without exaggeration, be used for research and experiments on a planetary scale.
This sort of integrated architecture will allow for the retrieval of as-yet-undiscovered knowledge and the operation of a colossal datasets on the environment, matter, organic and inorganic substances, to create conceptually new projects, materials, and complex systems on their basis.
I would like to highlight once again: it would be no exaggeration to say that in today’s world, literally everything hinges on how quickly we develop and, of course, implement innovations. This includes our sovereignty, economic development, solutions to civilian and crucial defence tasks that are currently technologically intertwined. In fundamental research, there has always been a dimension pertaining to defence and national security, prospective weaponry and military equipment.
Of course, these issues are not directly related to this council meeting, but we must clearly understand this when we set goals for science, including telecommunications, quantum technology, biotechnology, space, and new energy sources, including thermonuclear synthesis.
The comprehensive development programme for megascience-class installations is designed to address the large-scale and long-term objectives in these fields. As a result, Russia is definitely among the world leaders for such extremely complex scientific research infrastructure. Allow me to remind you – and I believe, participants in this project will never forget – that it was here, in the Academic Town, that the council decided to launch the megascience installation programme during its meeting in 2018. Valery Bukhtiyarov [Director of the Institute of Catalysis of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences] has just said that it is a result of my decisions. I struck the ball back to him: my decisions came in response to your requests and your vision of what holds the greatest importance and highest potential for fundamental research and its applications.
It has been a success. I have just seen this installation. It is truly impressive. We will certainly continue this work. I will say a few more words about this.
One of the projects discussed back then was the Siberian Circular Photon Source. We have just visited it. It is currently one of the most powerful particle accelerator in the world with some unique parameters that allows for exploring the world of atoms and molecules.
We expect its first research stations to be launched by this year-end. Russia has autonomously built around 30 units of critically important equipment (seven are currently in operation; the plan was to build 30 but it may go beyond that), including for this project, as our partners from other countries refused to supply such equipment.
Subsequently, we had to “push back” the launch of the Siberian Circular Photon Source, so to speak. However, we have become even stronger – this is certainly the case when we have become even stronger having built our competence in this field, our technological sovereignty and added more “technological keys” to our existing competences. Most certainly, we can and must take on new projects and scale up best solutions. Under no circumstances can we allow the newly created research and development teams to remain idle, the more so to decline. They should be able to fulfill all the plans we discussed in 2018, some of which are already in the pipeline.
Therefore, I suggest outlining further steps for developing new and modernising existing megascience infrastructure. Transformation and modernisation are underway at the Kurchatov Institute. All the paperwork is ready at Protvino, as far as I know. The Far Eastern Federal University on Russky Island is finilising respective proposals on the groundwork phase. At Gatchina, the work is showing fast progress across two fields. This project is in full swing.
The second point I wanted to talk about is that the logic behind scientific and technological development requires that approaches to the megascience infrastructure management and financing should be changed. Its expansion and application must become a priority when planning Russia’s science budget. Of course, we must prevent research results from hanging in the air without application. That would mean squandering colossal funds and years of painstaking efforts by invaluable scientists and research teams.
We must organise our work in such a way that domestic businesses and enterprises become the principal clients for breakthrough scientific solutions and technologies, assuming clear obligations to develop successful and competitive products on this basis. In fact, this process is already underway in biology, medicine, pharmaceuticals, materials science and many other disciplines. Our colleagues have just reported on this. Orders have already been placed, interested enterprises are participating, and our business community is demonstrating considerable enthusiasm, as is the state itself, across a range of sectors, including defence, chemistry, materials science and our energy companies. Let me reiterate that all these opportunities must serve the interests of both fundamental science and our domestic economy, healthcare and the social sphere.
The third point I would like to emphasise is that special and heightened attention must continue to be devoted to the national centres for genetic resources. The biological collections of plants, animals and micro-organisms in their custody are, without exaggeration, unique.
It is imperative to identify mechanisms for substantial financial and other forms of support for the development programmes of such centres, so that they can expand research in genetics, foster advanced developments in the bioeconomy, pharmaceuticals and food security, and cultivate human resource capacity to address not only present but also future challenges.
As regards human resources, I was pleased to meet with young scientists and school graduates – indeed, I was reluctant to leave: they are engaging young people, highly promising and forward-looking. These are precisely the individuals who are oriented towards the future. Here in Novosibirsk, a truly unique environment has been created: from school to university to full-scale research.
Let me add that all data available in Russia on genetic resources – animals, plants and micro-organisms, since we are discussing this matter – will be consolidated in the National Database of Genetic Information. The decision has been taken. Estimates suggest that approximately 10 petabytes of data will be uploaded to this database annually. Since we are addressing a broad audience, let me note that this equates to around five trillion pages of printed text. Naturally, all decisions in this area must under no circumstances result in an excessive monopoly or impede researchers in their work with the available materials, nor should they hinder the maintenance of scientific contacts with colleagues in other countries.
Fourth – such a vast unified digital repository of genomes, together with the entire megascience infrastructure, provides a colossal volume of scientific data, which must serve as the foundation for research and development efforts and, crucially, for the creation and training of Russian sovereign artificial intelligence models, both fundamental and sector-specific.
Accordingly, access to such unique databases should be granted to our scientific and educational organisations, high-technology companies and industrial enterprises. To this end, it is necessary to integrate all strategic scientific assets with computing capacity, supercomputers and sovereign cloud technologies – in essence, to construct a comprehensive platform ecosystem for the scientific and technological development of Russia. At the same time, it is essential to ensure the security and reliability of its operation in every respect, including the safeguarding of data that constitute the property of the Russian Federation.
Fifth, addressing the challenges I have just mentioned is a prerequisite for increasing the effectiveness of domestic science and organising research and development across the country. All our efforts in this area must be accompanied by a dramatic improvement in the quality of higher education and training. I have just described what is happening there.
In this regard, I would like to emphasise that we must continue our current course of developing advanced, truly strong universities and research centres in Russia’s regions. Where appropriate, we should consolidate the potential of research and higher education institutions working on related research and educational objectives.
The purpose of this approach is to improve the quality of education, create modern conditions for faculty and students, and increase support for talented researchers, leading departments and laboratories, and strong research teams capable of achieving significant results, conducting cutting-edge research, and training undergraduate and graduate students at the intersection of different scientific fields.
The establishment of such powerful research and educational centres in the regions, their continued operation, and the implementation of their development programs will naturally require additional funding. I ask the government to allocate the necessary funds from the draft federal budget for the next three years. I also ask the regions to actively support these centres, as they can become powerful growth points, drivers of regional development, and new opportunities for young people, teachers, and young researchers to unlock their potential.
In this regard, I would like to make one more decision. Currently, cutting-edge scientific, educational, and social infrastructure is being developed in the regions, including through programmes to build university campuses and create megascience facilities. Access to this infrastructure should not be exclusive or restricted. On the contrary, the idea is that scientists, teachers, students, universities, and research institutes from across the country should be able to make joint use of these modern facilities and opportunities. I ask the government to work out all the necessary organisational and legal mechanisms for this.
In conclusion, I would like to add one more thing: achieving practical, truly breakthrough results requires the maximum concentration of efforts by all participants in Russia’s scientific and technological development. An example of such team work – I have already mentioned it, but it is worth repeating – was demonstrated by our colleagues who worked on the creation of the Siberian Circular Photon Source. They included researchers from the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics and the Boreskov Institute of Catalysis, Novosibirsk State University, Rosatom organisations, and the Kurchatov Institute. Its president, Mikhail Kovalchuk, is the ideologist and, one might say, the driving force behind the development of this megascience infrastructure. Let us begin today’s meeting by discussing plans for its further development.
Mr Kovalchuk, please, you have the floor.
<…>
Vladimir Putin: Colleagues,
In conclusion, I would like to congratulate all of you on today’s event and thank those who were directly involved in creating the SKIF synchrotron.
This project did not mark the beginning of our work within this framework, or in terms of operating these capabilities at this scale. In fact, it builds on what was already achieved by those who came before us back in the Soviet era, and then by us over recent years. Someone rightly noted during this meeting that this will give a strong impetus to further developing education in Russia, science and research, and the key branches of manufacture and the economy, which can benefit from what megascience systems like this one have to offer.
While thanking you for this work, I would also like to recognise members of the Council for Science and Education for our joint work over the past year and, in fact, all these years. I hope that we will continue working in the same manner, while also implementing the projects and programmes we have discussed during today’s meeting.
Of course, my colleagues from the Presidential Executive Office and I will set out everything that was said today in the corresponding documents, and the Government of the Russian Federation will rely on them in its decision-making process.
Thank you. All the best to all of you.