On 28 February 2024, the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin approved new ‘Scientific and Technological Development Strategy of the Russian Federation (Executive Order No 145, dated 28 February 2024). The Strategy determines purposes, main objectives and priorities of the country’s scientific and technological development up to 2030, stipulates areas of the state policy in this area and measures to implement them.

The purpose of the scientific and technological development of the Russian Federation is to ensure the country’s sovereignty and competitiveness based on the creation of an effective system of building and fullest use of the nation’s intellectual potential.

This goal should be achieved through addressing a number of major tasks: creating the facilities to identify talented young people and building a successful career in the field of science; creating the facilities to conduct research and development meeting the current principles of organising scientific, scientific-technical, innovative activities and the most sound global practices; forming an effective communication system in the field of science, technology and innovations; establishing an effective modern management system in the field of science, technology and innovations, developing a model of international scientific-technical cooperation and international integration in the field of research and technological development enabling to protect the identity of the Russian scientific sector and national interests based on the mutually beneficial interaction.

A fundamental principle of the state policy in the field of the scientific and technological development of the Russian Federation is the targeted support and fare competition: the use of public mechanisms to provide access to the state infrastructural, financial and non-financial resources to the most productive research teams.

The Strategy highlights the special status of the basic science underlining the key role of basic research in preparing the national scientific and technological sector to address great challenges.

Academic and research departments and maintenance services will have to update their activities in accordance with the goals, objectives and priorities set-forth by the Strategy. In this regard, it is required:

1. To focus research and development activities of the scientists and research teams on the topics, correspondent to the priority areas, specified by the Strategy (as applied to relevant fields of knowledge). To this end, instruct heads of the faculties and institutes to analyse research and development activities in terms of their compliance with the priorities, specified by the Strategy, in cooperation with respective scientific committees;
2. To analyse and revise the topics of doctoral theses, graduation projects for master’s degree from the position of their compliance with the priorities of the scientific and technological development of the Russian Federation, specified by the Strategy;
3. To consider priorities declared by the Strategy while preparing applications for grant support of research projects at St Petersburg University submitted to science foundations;
4. To be guided by the priorities, specified by the Strategy, while organising internal competitions for St Petersburg University grants to conduct R&D;
5. To update labour contracts with research and teaching staff by the clause providing mandatory observation of the priorities of the scientific and technological development of the Russian Federation in their research activities;
6. To increase the share of fundamental research in the total volume (list) of research projects and technological developments carried out at St Petersburg University
7. To organise international cooperation of St Petersburg University based on the mutually beneficial forms of cooperation in R&D and in accordance with its own priorities;
8. To recognise ‘the increasing relevance of interdisciplinary scientific studies within the framework of ‘synthetic scientific disciplines created at the intersection of psychology, sociology, political science, history and scientific research related to the ethical aspects of scientific and technological development, changes in social, political and economic relations’;
9. To create facilities to identify and educate talented young people, build successful career in the field of science, technologies and technological entrepreneurship.

Due to the special importance of this document, it is advisable to entrust the heads of academic and research departments to organise discussions of the main provisions of the Strategy (goals, objectives, principles, priorities, etc.) in relation to the profile and subject field of R&D activities of the institute or faculty at dean/director meetings or meetings of academic councils.

Sergey Mikushev, Vice-Rector for Research
N. Skvortsov, Dean of the Faculty of Sociology

Executive order of the Presidents of the Russian Federation on the Scientific and Technological Development Strategy of the Russian Federation