Scientists, Engineers, and Track-Two Diplomacy A Half-Century of U.S.-Russian Interacademy Cooperation (2004) / Chapter Skim
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5. Supporting Innovation: From Basic Research to Payment for Sales
5. Supporting Innovation: From Basic Research to Payment for Sales
Pages 63-80
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From page 63... ...
They immediately questioned whether the United States in general and the NRC in particular should waste time and effort addressing problems in Russia in view of the fact that the indigenous Russian technology was unlikely to benefit the United States or even contribute significantly to economic development in Russia. According to the panelists, globalization of the process of development and use of modern technology was taking place in Europe and Asia.
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From page 64... ...
In the view of a somewhat overly optimistic but headstrong Russian government, there are many hopeful signs that the economy is beginning to move from one that is simply a source of natural resources and cheap technical labor to one that is knowledge-based as well. Determination, when followed by demonstrated commitment, will be a good first step toward success.2 · Russia occupies one-seventh of the earth's land surface, and many developments in Russia affect the United States.
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From page 65... ...
During the 1 990s, the United States and many European governments agreed with this analysis and supported a large number of science and technology cooperative programs with Russia. They also aggressively promoted Western investments in Russian industrial development that they thought would turn a profit.3 They may have dismissed as unrealistic bravado some Russian predictions about the revival of Russian industry and agriculture, and they may have seen many cooperative projects fail to produce the promised results, but Western technology hunters, encouraged by their governments, have steadfastly observed research and production facilities, watching and waiting for a technology revival while keeping a tight rein on their pocketbooks.4 In the late 1 990s, both Western government and private sector organizations began to move toward strengthening ties with individual Russian specialists, while minimizing the direct involvement in cooperative projects of the leaders, accountants, and midlevel managers of the Russian institutes or companies where the specialists were employed.
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From page 66... ...
A variation of this initial approach was adopted by the NRC in the 1 990s whereby individual American specialists interested in different policy issues including policies with scientific dimensions in the environmental, economic, security, and other areas traveled to the former Soviet Union, including Russia, and Eastern Europe, to pursue self-designed projects. About 20 scholars went to
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From page 67... ...
Early in the 1990s, USAID proposed that the NRC establish an exchange program for applied scientists from the former Soviet Union who would work in the United States on problems related to economic and social development. After USAID rejected an alternate NRC proposal that called for building centers of excellence in Russia and other former Soviet republics, the NRC acquiesced to USAID's interest in bringing the specialists to the United States.
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From page 68... ...
This travel grant program is administered on a regional basis to include specialists from most of the states of the former Soviet Union and from Eastern Europe teaming with American scientists. Although only 10-15 U.S.-Russian teams are selected in this competition each year, the quality of the participants is quite high, and the program has considerable value, symbolizing the importance of U.S.-Russian exchanges in the basic sciences.
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From page 69... ...
Beginning investigators receive preferential treatment in the review process, but the number remains small. The limited duration of the visits of Russians to the United States has reduced the likelihood that the exchanges will encourage emigration, particularly because families almost never accompany short-term exchange visitors (see, for example, NRC 11998a: 17-181~.
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From page 70... ...
The NRC effort gives priority to improved linkages between Russian researchers and Russian firms, with the firms increasingly outsourcing research projects. The objective is not simply to commercialize technologies, but also to provide new job opportunities in the Russian manufacturing sector opportunities produced by developing upgraded technologies locally for use in Russia.
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From page 71... ...
The RAE assembled a group of industrial managers who, with considerable nostalgia, recalled earlier Soviet experience with systematically pushing technologies from research institutes to state enterprises without the constraints of competition and the need for careful economic analysis. The American participants emphasized the new responsibility of individual entrepreneurs to find paying customers or go out of business.
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From page 72... ...
The core issue has been the ownership of technology developed with the use of Russian government funds. There is little hope of untangling the confusion surrounding technology developed during the Soviet period that was incorporated into new products during the 1990s, but there is increasing acceptance of the concept that, for entirely new technologies, the government should give the patent rights at no cost to the institutions where the inventors are employed and that the inventors should receive a fair share of profits from the inventions that take hold.
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From page 73... ...
The main focus of the project, however, was on the center at IGEM. The concept implemented at IGEM quickly attracted interest in both Russia and the United States, and the limited funding available to the NRC for upgrading IGEM electronic networking capabilities was supplemented by funding from Russian, international, and U.S.
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From page 74... ...
After the American specialists consulted intensively in early 2000 with Russian officials and experts in Moscow and with officials and specialists from the northern Caucasus in Rostov-on-Don, the two academies sponsored a conference in Moscow in December 2000 on ways to prevent eruption of ethnic violence, to bring an end to violence, and to reconstruct societies torn by ethnic-rooted violence. A large number of Russian officials and specialists as well as a few Western experts participated in an open and frank discussion of issues at a time when Russian officials were worried about the outbreaks of violence in various minority enclaves in Russia (or the 10 ethnic hotshots, as the Russian government called them)
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From page 75... ...
SUPPORTING INNOVATION 75 were impressive and in sharp contrast to the difficulties in the northern Caucasus because of both the different styles of political leadership and the different histories, particularly since 1991 . This initial phase ofthe program concluded with a conference in December 2001 in Washington that sought opportunities for joint U.S.-Russian research teams to discuss violence, identity, and cross-cultural studies (NRC, 2003a)
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From page 76... ...
· producing textbooks on Chechen literature for grades 10 and 1 1 (Ministry of General and Vocational Education of Chechnya and Chechen State University) · exploring employment opportunities for university students (Chechen State University)
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From page 77... ...
A workshop to continue examination of ethnic relations, and in particular approaches to local governance, is scheduled for late 2003, probably focusing on Dagestan, to be followed by wrapup conferences in Washington and Moscow in late 2004. The results of the pilot projects in Chechnya should be available in early 2004 and reported at the conferences, along with significant observations on lessons learned during the program, to interested officials and specialists.
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From page 78... ...
In later years, several of the participants in each group continued to work with their colleagues with the support of either the NRC individual exchange programs or programs of other organizations (NRC, 1993b: 14-15, 1993f)
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From page 79... ...
The attendance by both Russian government officials and specialists, from Moscow and from outlying regions, was strong; the papers presented by both American and Russian specialists were filled with previously unavailable information; and the free-wheeling discussions gave many Russian environmental activists in attendance an opportunity to have their voices heard by an international audience. Two other indicators of success emerged as well.
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From page 80... ...
· Reports distributed in the United States about the state of Russian science are overwhelmingly negative, and more publicly available reports on the positive aspects of many research and related activities in Russia are needed. · Training Russian research and development managers in modern approaches to the effective use of personnel and facilities and to interactions with potential customers should be a priority in cooperative programs.
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