OREANDA-NEWS. The welcoming address of First Vice Premier of Russia Sergey Ivanov to the participants in the forum “Young Personnel of High-Tech Industries of Innovative Russia”, reported the press-centre of Rosatom. 

Deal colleagues,
I would, first of all, like to thank the organizers of the forum for inviting me to speak from its tribune and to take part in the discussion of such an urgent problem.

I am deeply convinced that the young personnel of the high-tech industries of Russia are the vanguard of our economy and the key guarantors of our future prosperity.

Theodore Dreiser said that “the hope and zest and youth are at the bottom of all the constructive energy of the world.” Today, in our innovative world the youth, with their fresh mentality and great ambitious, with their positive maximalism and revolutionary spirit, can really move mountains.

It is extremely important that this gargantuan force be used as effectively as possible. For this purpose, we should show our youth the right way and give them a good start in life, first of all, by giving them education of high quality. Many Russian universities, particularly, Moscow Engineering Physics Institute, still have this quality. Second, we should provide our youth with real employment opportunities, so they can chose the professions they like and can realize themselves in science. And, third, we should show them that in our country labor is respected and highly remunerated. 

Unfortunately, we still have lots of problems in the sphere. The average age of our research workers exceeds 40, candidates of science – 50, doctors – 60, academicians – 70.

We still have lots of problems but I think that the crisis is over. We are gradually restoring our positions. This can be best seen in our higher schools. Today, our leading universities graduate competent and competitive specialists. This is not just a beautiful phrase. Our technical specialists are in high demand worldwide.

Meanwhile, the priorities of our youth are changing for the better. More and more youths are beginning to prefer initiative and interesting creative work for the sake of other people. Social surveys show that the profession of scientist is growing increasingly popular among the youth – almost as popular as the prestigious professions of lawyer and manager – mostly because many research and engineering companies, especially in the spheres of information technologies, oil and gas chemistry and power engineering, pay quite high wages to their employees.

However, money is not the only stimulus. I, first of all, mean the delight of creation, the bliss of invention and the satisfaction of discovery. Our scientists have a well-known saying: “Just imagine, they let me do the work I like and even pay me money for that!” That is, the most important thing for a real scientist is science itself.

Presently, our Government is trying to create favorable conditions for academic and research work. For this purpose, we should create basic infrastructure, i.e. we should develop our research and education centers and provide them with modern equipment and efficient and viable teams. The best research projects will be financed on a competitive basis.

I would like to point out that part of the money will be spent on the wages of researchers.

We believe that this approach will attract young researchers into the sphere.

As regards the equipment of research centers and universities, here we are planning to apply the mechanisms of state-private partnership.

One more important aspect is the need to develop a system of information support of research and training activities. We should make manuals, theses, research reports and experts findings widely accessible, particularly, by issuing them in electronic versions.

Besides, we are going to actively encourage our mass media to provide objective coverage of the achievements of the youth in science and innovations and to popularize research among students and school-children.

As regards financing, here we should work out effective mechanisms. We already have some. Particularly, we are finalizing a draft special federal target program “Scientific and Scientific-Pedagogical Personnel of Innovative Russia.” The key objective of this program is to train highly-qualified young specialists for our science and higher education. The program is scheduled for 2009–2013 and will receive a total of 54bln RUR. 

For many decades MEPhI has been training highly-qualified specialists. Today, you enjoy excellent career opportunities and I am sure that some of you will get into the elite of the world science some day.

I would like to inform you that we are planning to establish a federal nuclear university on the basis of MEPhI. It will be a center that will train personnel for the whole nuclear power industry. As you may know, presently, we are implementing three federal target programs in the nuclear industry and are allocating big money for them. We are planning to build two nuclear power units a year.

I think that we really need such a university. The Education and Science Ministry and Rosatom are already discussing this project.

We are implementing one more very important project: we are establishing a state corporation on the basis of Rosatom. This structure is supposed to consolidate the civil and military sectors of our nuclear industry.

In conclusion, I would like to wish you success in your future professional activities.