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HSE experts assessed the scale of employment in Russian science over the past ten years. The number of scientists is reduced by several thousand every year, a strong increase in the number is noted only in the field of social sciences
What’s going on
- According to a study by the Institute for Statistical Research and Economics of Knowledge (ISSEK) of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, the number of Russian specialists engaged in research and development has decreased by 2011 thousand to 28,2 thousand people since 346,5: for full-time staff, the reduction was 7,6% , and for part-time workers – 34%.
- According to experts, in 2020, 679,3 thousand people worked in the field of R&D in our country, 51% of which were researchers, 8,8% were technicians, and 40% were support and other personnel.
- The ISSEK study also showed that in the last decade in our country there has been an insufficient replenishment of scientific personnel – for example, in 2020, 85,5 thousand people were admitted to research organizations, while 91,1 people left the sector over the same period thousand people.
- It is noteworthy that over ten years the number of specialists in the social and human sciences has grown significantly, while in the technical, medical, natural sciences and, especially, agricultural sectors, there has been a steady decline in the number of researchers.
- In addition, there are fewer researchers in our country with a Ph.D. or Ph.D. degree — their number has decreased from 109,5 thousand people in 2011 to 99,1 thousand people by the end of 2020.
- At the same time, it should be noted that in the last decade there has been an increase in the number of young scientists (under the age of 39), as a result, the average age of a Russian scientist has decreased from 48 to 46 years.
- Now the most numerous age category among researchers is people aged 30-39 years with a share of almost 28%, that is, born in the 1980s. Ten years ago, scientists of the same age (born in the 1970s) were only 17%.
What does it mean
Despite the decline in the number of scientists over the past decade, a reverse trend is expected in the near future due to government efforts to increase the salaries of researchers. Nevertheless, there are very disturbing trends in Russian science — UNESCO experts in the 7th edition of the Science Report “Race with Time for Smarter Development” noted that in our country there is not only a decrease in the number of researchers, but also a reduction in spending on science. In addition, the main share of investments falls on the state, while business does not show much interest in financing applied research.
It is worth noting that our country still remains one of the world leaders in terms of the absolute scale of employment in science. According to experts, the number of personnel employed in research and development (in full-time equivalent) in 2020 amounted to 748,7 thousand person-years, according to this indicator, only China, the USA and Japan are ahead of Russia.