Personnel Problems in Domestic Science

Abstract

The paper discusses the problems of scientific activity effectiveness, especially the quality of scientific personnel training, formation and maintenance of creative climate in research teams, and certification of scientific workers. The majority of the works devoted to the problems of domestic science development discuss the problems of low demand for the results of research and publication activity at the international level, aging of research teams and the problem of youth flow-in into science, material and financial support of scientific research, the structure of research and its compliance with the most demanded areas of knowledge and much more. Much less attention in the scientific literature is paid to the problem of the use of human capital in science, and usually the conclusions are reduced to the problem of insufficient funding of fundamental research. The article discusses the process of training of highly qualified researchers, argues that a special role in this is played by on-the-job training, justifies the need to create conditions for the flow of scientific personnel and extensive informal cooperation of scientists. It is shown from the standpoint of the theory of human capital and special interest groups that such mechanisms to a certain extent ensure the effectiveness of scientific research. Some decisions of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation regarding the stimulation of scientific research productivity are considered. It is shown that the approaches of the Ministry in this area are reduced to the orientation of scientists to achieve formal quantitative indicators, which ultimately leads to a decrease in the quality of R&D. Moreover, the focus on quantitative indicators leads to individualization of research work, reduction of incentives for creative communication and scientific criticism. Another problem is the formation of scientific nomenclature and the growing isolation of domestic science from the world. The tightening of criteria and the increasing complexity of scientific certification procedures on the basis of the same quantitative approaches and growing centralization in decision-making lead rather to the opposite result – the quality of researchers and the effectiveness of their work are declining. The general conclusion is that the domestic science needs actual decentralization both in the choice of research topics and in the personnel policy.