“The country has also experienced more difficult times”: the heads of Russian universities - on the severance of scientific ties with the European Union

The leaders of Russian universities and research centers are sure that breaking ties with the European Union in the research field will not hinder the development of domestic science.

So they commented in an interview with RT on EU sanctions against Russian science.

Recall that on March 4, the European Commission published a statement stating that the EU has frozen cooperation with Russian research structures "as a sign of solidarity with the Ukrainian people."

“The Commission will not enter into any new contracts or agreements with Russian organizations under the Horizon Europe program.

Moreover, the Commission is suspending payments to Russian legal entities under existing contracts,” the European Union said in a statement.

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Recall that Horizon Europe is a key EU program aimed at supporting scientific research.

It is designed for a period from 2021 to 2027, the total amount of funding is €95.5 billion.

In addition, earlier the suspension of existing projects with Russian scientists was announced by the European XFEL organization, which operates the world's largest X-ray free electron laser, built with Russian participation.

The day before, it also became known about the decision of the Norwegian authorities to freeze cooperation with Russia in the field of science and education.

This was reported in the Norwegian government.

The heads of Russian scientific organizations told RT how they assess the actions of European partners and the possible consequences of restrictions in the scientific field.

President of the NRC "Kurchatov Institute" Mikhail Kovalchuk

- Firstly, I must say that our country has experienced much more difficult times than now.

For example, after the revolution, during the Civil War, Russian science still lived to give the world Nobel laureates - Nikolai Semyonov, Lev Landau, Pyotr Kapitsa.

Already then the foundations were laid for our future successes in the nuclear project, in space, in genetics.

Destroyed by the revolution, the Civil War, the country already in the 1920s created several dozen scientific institutes, including even institutes that were engaged in the study of cultural heritage.

• President of the NRC "Kurchatov Institute" Mikhail Kovalchuk

• © Wikimedia

And then the Great Patriotic War began.

In 1943, bloodless, participating in an unequal battle with Germany, our country began its atomic project.

At that time, 100 people worked in Laboratory No. 2 of the future Kurchatov Institute, while tens of thousands of people were involved in the American Manhattan Project.

Nevertheless, we have created nuclear weapons, nuclear energy and a nuclear fleet - submarine and icebreaking.

Today, Russia is the only state that actually controls the global nuclear energy market, and also has a nuclear icebreaker fleet.

And all this is the fruit of the atomic project, which began to develop during the war years.

Today we actively participate in international megascience projects.

First of all, we are talking about the creation of unique research facilities in Europe.

For example, they include the international thermonuclear reactor of the ITER tokamak type, which is being built in the south of France.

Russia was the initiator of the creation of this reactor, and the word "tokamak" itself is Russian, it is an abbreviation for "toroidal chamber with magnetic coils."

Our institute, together with Rosatom, created the basis for ITER - superconducting low-temperature cables, through which current flows to create a magnetic field.

In total, we supplied 300 tons of this material for ITER, no other country could make it.

In addition, the project of the world's largest X-ray free electron laser XFEL is being implemented in Europe.

After ITER, this is the largest scientific project, the scientific idea itself also belongs to Soviet and Russian scientists.

The Kurchatov Institute makes a lot of systems for this project, in financial terms, the Russian share is about a third of the total cost of the project.

Moreover, every year we pay almost €40 million to ensure the operation of this installation.

The situation is similar with the Center for Ion and Antiproton Research (FAIR) in Germany, where Russian participation in this project is the second after Germany, including financial investments.

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Or, for example, take the Large Hadron Collider - CERN, which is on everyone's lips.

There are four experimental stations at which measurements are carried out - beams of accelerated particles collide.

Most of the detectors at these stations, about the size of a five-story building, are made of lead tungstate crystals.

Russia is the only country that has been able to develop and manufacture so many of these unique crystals.

Therefore, I do not know who will be hit more tangibly by these sanctions - Russia or Europe?

For our part, we fully retain our participation in European projects and comply with all our obligations.

And we think that our European colleagues will also follow the rules.

But if they nevertheless take irreversible steps, it will be very sad from the point of view of violating world harmony.

Science, like culture, has always served to preserve unity, gave the world the opportunity to revive again after all the upheavals.

Therefore, I hope for the understanding and the right attitude of our European, American, Japanese and other foreign colleagues.

I hope that the level of cooperation we have reached will not be destroyed.

• International thermonuclear reactor of the tokamak type ITER

• © Wikimedia/ITER

But even if this happens, we are ready for it.

In Russia, by decrees of the President, a large-scale program has been launched to create a unique mega-science infrastructure for breakthrough research.

Now we are creating the largest mega-plants in the Far East, on Russky Island, which have no analogues in the world.

A powerful Kurchatov synchrotron radiation source (KISI-Kurchatov) is operating in Moscow, and a high-flux research nuclear reactor PIK, which has no analogues in the world, is already operating near St. Petersburg.

An agreement was also signed on the entry of Belarus into this project, and we are also discussing the participation of Uzbekistan and other CIS countries in it.

In addition, Russia has always had close scientific ties with India and China.

For example, in Soviet times we built an institute of nuclear physics in India, as well as a source of synchrotron radiation.

The Kurchatov Institute at one time created a tokamak-type installation for China.

That is, our cooperation has deep roots and a long history.

RUDN Rector Oleg Yastrebov

Science is made by scientists, not politicians.

Over the past five years, based on the results of scientific research, RUDN University published 3.5 thousand articles published in collaboration with foreign colleagues - this is almost 14,000 authors around the world.

None of them were made under the Horizon Europe program.

For example, some of the most highly cited papers in the collaboration in 2021 were co-authored with Chinese scientists.

• RUDN University

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Andrey Rudskoy, Rector of Peter the Great St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University

- The dirtiest thing the EU could do is to interfere with politics in science and education.

Even during the wars and confrontations of the 19th and 20th centuries, these spheres have always remained out of politics.

And now they are expelling students, closing scholarship programs, speculating...

Such is today the wild "humanism" of enlightened Europe.

For example, our university has long-standing ties with European institutions, we have participated in many joint programs.

And now all this cooperation has been eliminated.

By the way, Russia plays such an important role in a number of international scientific projects that it is simply impossible to exclude it from them.

Basically, we are talking about nuclear "megascience" projects.

I think that the West will not impose sanctions on them, pretending to have "mercifulness" at the same time.

Of course, the actions of the EU are now striking on both sides - both on us and on Europe. 

Our university will also incur costs - we have contracts with Western counterparties for almost €300 million, we have more than 50 partners in Germany.

Basically, cooperation developed in the field of information technology.

Among our partners are BMW, Volkswagen, Porsche.

Siemens is also our long-term partner, but its branches in Russia will continue to work with us, we have a number of joint laboratories.

We have now directed our gaze towards our friendly states, primarily China.

Our university in Shanghai has had a representative office for five years now, we have been conducting diverse research in a number of areas: nuclear energy, microelectronics.

In the field of information technology, we are working with India, and we have long-standing scientific and educational contacts with Vietnam.

We also plan to build cooperation with friendly Ibero-American countries.

At the same time, I don’t want to engage in capping.

We are not full of optimism, but of determination to continue scientific research.

Russia has experienced less than such challenges, I believe in our talented people, in the president, in our scientists, who will roll up their sleeves to deal with issues of import substitution and the development of our independent economy.

• International Winter School of the Polytechnic University

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First Vice-Rector, Professor, Member of the Academic Council of St. Petersburg State University of Industrial Technologies and Design Pavel Lukanin

- The fact that politics is now being mixed into science is, of course, not good for science.

As a rule, the scientific sphere is still far from politics, the cooperation of scientists from different countries has always moved science forward, there was an exchange of knowledge and opinions between different scientific schools.

As for how the decision of the EU authorities will affect Russian science: you need to understand that only a part of the countries refuses to cooperate with us, far from the whole world, and not even all of Europe.

We maintain ties with Asian countries - China, India, Vietnam and many others.

For example, with Israel or our partners from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, where there are also universities, research centers and academies of sciences.

So the international partnership will continue, although the circle of its participants will narrow.

But nothing super-destructive will happen.

In general, such a decision strikes not so much at Russian as at all world science.

Even in the days of the Soviet Union, international scientific work was going on to solve important problems - the fight against cancer, heart disease, atomic research and much more.

Because there are issues that concern all of humanity.

Our university is also working on several international grants.

To a greater extent, in our case, we are talking about ties with scientists from Finland, Sweden, and to a lesser extent with Germany.

Most likely, now, due to the politicization of science, these grants will no longer be available.

Of course, this is bad - after all, such a partnership plays not only a financial role, but, if I may say so, a universal one.

Mutual understanding was strengthened, students and teachers from different countries and universities communicated with each other, worked on solving problems that were important for all.

However, I do not believe that this situation will continue for a long time.

I believe that over time, common sense will prevail in the EU.