вот как бывает
боролся человек за чистоту науки, письма писал в журнал про науку "Science":
Questions About Russian Grant System
In their article "Academy plucks best biophysicists from a sea of mediocrity" (News of the Week, 14 Feb., p. 994), A. Allakhverdov and V. Pokrovsky report on a novel grant system for Russian basic biological science. The grant competition was for three types of applications: (i) basic life science projects (molecular biology, biochemistry, genetics, biophysics); (ii) socially oriented projects (fighting against cancer, AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, etc.); and (iii) grants for young Russian scientists working in the West to become independent group leaders in Russia. With all respect to those who managed to break through the brick wall and make the first step toward normal scientific life in Russia, I feel that implementing this grant system was a very strange step. I must raise some criticisms of the award mechanism, which was far below accepted international standards.
The competition was not publicly announced. A letter signed by the secretary of the grant program was privately mailed to directors of the various biology institutes; this letter gave them the responsibility to "inform about new awards those who are capable to participate." Those considered by the administration of the institutes as incapable of participating would presumably not be informed. Moreover, those who are living and working abroad would never find out about the possibility of working in their home country, because no information was made available on the Web.
All applications had to go through preliminary selection by institutional "scientific committees" that decided whether groups already working under the sponsorship of the institute would be allowed to take part in the main race. Taking into account that scientific committees in Russian institutes have a high proportion of administrators (sometimes more than half), one cannot rule out that nonscientific criteria were applied at these early stages of proposal submission.
Although the quality of the applicants for the basic science (first category) and new group grants (third category) can be judged by the impact factors of the journals they publish in, the competition among "socially oriented projects" appears to be very subjective, giving rise to many of the speculations regarding the selection process mentioned by Allakhverdov and Pokrovsky.
Applications were only reviewed by Russian scientists, many of whom participated in the competition. When the organizers were asked why they did not delegate at least part of the reviewing process to well-known Western experts, the answer was that there was not enough time. This is surprising considering the speed of modern communication and the fact that the essence of each proposal was contained in one page. It would be nice if next time the applications were screened by Western scientists as well, as integrating Russian science into the framework of international science is an important goal. Moreover, an independent reviewing process would help erase the skepticism about the grant awardees that is currently rampant.
Egor Prokhortchouk
Head of the Group of Transcriptional Control and Oncogenesis, Institute of Gene Biology, Vavilova 34/5, 117334 Moscow, Russian Federation.
Прошло семь лет, и вот он в совсем другой компании секвенировал "геном русского", и дает совсем другие интервью.
Caveat: самые сочные перлы ("есть болезнь ашкенази, присущая замкнутой группе евреев") - это, видимо, все-таки от журналисточки; надо слушать аудио.
via http://vigna.livejournal.com/99463.html
Questions About Russian Grant System
In their article "Academy plucks best biophysicists from a sea of mediocrity" (News of the Week, 14 Feb., p. 994), A. Allakhverdov and V. Pokrovsky report on a novel grant system for Russian basic biological science. The grant competition was for three types of applications: (i) basic life science projects (molecular biology, biochemistry, genetics, biophysics); (ii) socially oriented projects (fighting against cancer, AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, etc.); and (iii) grants for young Russian scientists working in the West to become independent group leaders in Russia. With all respect to those who managed to break through the brick wall and make the first step toward normal scientific life in Russia, I feel that implementing this grant system was a very strange step. I must raise some criticisms of the award mechanism, which was far below accepted international standards.
The competition was not publicly announced. A letter signed by the secretary of the grant program was privately mailed to directors of the various biology institutes; this letter gave them the responsibility to "inform about new awards those who are capable to participate." Those considered by the administration of the institutes as incapable of participating would presumably not be informed. Moreover, those who are living and working abroad would never find out about the possibility of working in their home country, because no information was made available on the Web.
All applications had to go through preliminary selection by institutional "scientific committees" that decided whether groups already working under the sponsorship of the institute would be allowed to take part in the main race. Taking into account that scientific committees in Russian institutes have a high proportion of administrators (sometimes more than half), one cannot rule out that nonscientific criteria were applied at these early stages of proposal submission.
Although the quality of the applicants for the basic science (first category) and new group grants (third category) can be judged by the impact factors of the journals they publish in, the competition among "socially oriented projects" appears to be very subjective, giving rise to many of the speculations regarding the selection process mentioned by Allakhverdov and Pokrovsky.
Applications were only reviewed by Russian scientists, many of whom participated in the competition. When the organizers were asked why they did not delegate at least part of the reviewing process to well-known Western experts, the answer was that there was not enough time. This is surprising considering the speed of modern communication and the fact that the essence of each proposal was contained in one page. It would be nice if next time the applications were screened by Western scientists as well, as integrating Russian science into the framework of international science is an important goal. Moreover, an independent reviewing process would help erase the skepticism about the grant awardees that is currently rampant.
Egor Prokhortchouk
Head of the Group of Transcriptional Control and Oncogenesis, Institute of Gene Biology, Vavilova 34/5, 117334 Moscow, Russian Federation.
Прошло семь лет, и вот он в совсем другой компании секвенировал "геном русского", и дает совсем другие интервью.
Caveat: самые сочные перлы ("есть болезнь ашкенази, присущая замкнутой группе евреев") - это, видимо, все-таки от журналисточки; надо слушать аудио.
via http://vigna.livejournal.com/99463.html