The Insecurity of the Russian Science Equipment Facility: the Scale of the Crisis and Efforts to Overcome It.

Abstract

Russian science is highly dependent on foreign research equipment, consumables, and specialized software. According to the survey conducted in 2022, 60% of the researchers indicated the share of foreign equipment at the rate of 80%. At the same time, about half of the researchers noted their dissatisfaction with the current provision of the instrumentation base to varying degrees. The sensitivity of Russian science to foreign sanctions related to the termination of equipment supplies is only slightly amortized cumulatively in the following ways: available analogues of Russian production or production of friendly countries, creation of Russian analogues in a short time. In most cases import substitution of foreign equipment, according to researchers' estimates, is either impossible or will take a long time. The federal project initiated in 2022 “Development of domestic civilian instrumentation for scientific research” needs to be significantly strengthened, since in its current configuration it does not meet the task of accelerated and large-scale import substitution.