Russia – EU: Labyrinths of Humanitarian Cooperation

This article analyses the current situation in the humanitarian cooperation between the EU and Russia. At present the main program blocks of this type of partnership comprise education, science and technology networks and culture. It has been recognized that each of the above areas of cooperation has its own specifics, different scope of coverage and significant potential for growth.

This article analyses the current situation in the humanitarian cooperation between the EU and Russia. At present the main program blocks of this type of partnership comprise education, science and technology networks and culture. It has been recognized that each of the above areas of cooperation has its own specifics, different scope of coverage and significant potential for growth.

Education

To-date the education has turned out to be the most efficient and expanded element within the system of Russian-European humanitarian cooperation. The progress in this area is due primarily to mutual interest of the parties in such cooperation -- albeit quite different in its content. This interest on the part of the EU has manifested itself first of all in its efforts to strengthen the prestige and influence of the European education (especially higher education) in the world by enrolling young students from Russia, as well as to reinforce its positions and presence in the world market of education services by increasing the number of foreign students. For Russian policymakers cooperation with Europe in the area of education means an opportunity to carry through a strategy aimed at obtaining membership in the prestigious international clubs. For instance, this would give them a chance to join the Bologna agreement of the EU member states which has transformed itself in the mega-project of the European Higher Education Area. Russia became a full-fledged member of the Bologna process in 2003.

Science and Technologies

Photo: Kris Ods & Susan Robertson
Bologna Process Membership Since 1999

In the meantime the EU has been interested not only in a larger inflow of foreign students but the “best brains” as well. The Russian scientists in their turn have been attracted in this scientific dialogue not only by the modern research infrastructure of the Old World but also by a much higher remuneration for the research as compared to what they can earn at home. The budget payroll of researchers in the Russian Universities and Institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences averages €500 a month against €2,000 in the European Universities.

According to experts nowadays the countries of the European Union are generating up to one third of the global scientific knowledge. The main areas of activity, where the Russia-EU cooperation in the scientific and technological sphere can bring mutually beneficial results, have been recorded already in 2009, in the “Partnership for Modernization” programme. The document adopted following the 2010 Russia-EU Summit held in Rostov-on-Don stated that the protection of the intellectual property rights, transport, energy efficiency and outer space will become the priority areas of the scientific and technological interaction. The energy dialogue and cooperation in space exploration to-date have been the most successful activities. This is mainly due to Russia’s (since the Soviet times) tremendous scientific and technological “stock” of achievements in these areas. Russia-EU interaction in the protection of intellectual property rights has been so far less effective in many respects because of insufficient elaboration of the legal aspects of this topic in Russia.

Within the Sixth EU Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development Russia rated as the most highly demanded third country in terms of the total number of participations in the programme, the total amount of EU financial contribution received.

In the current Seventh EU Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development similar results can hardly be expected. And this is not so much due to Russians as to the changed “rules of the game” – as compared to the previous Framework Programme the FP7 has reduced the number of outside partners and made an emphasis on small scale projects. This is exactly why Russia has not enough grounds to expect that it will have a full-scale participation in this programme.

However, the information infrastructure to help Russian researchers to get involved in the framework mechanisms has been provided at a very high level. First, a project consortium of the 7th EU Framework Programme for strengthening science and technology cooperation with the Russian Federation (BILAT-RUS) was established. The following portals were opened within this project: S&T Gate Rus (started in spring 2010, to create a network for contacts and provide full information on cooperation among scientific organizations), ERA WATCH (information site on the European, national and regional research subsystems, and the EU policy and programmes to develop the European research area), EURAXESS (mobility portal, aimed at maintaining the EU contacts with the European and non-European scientists both within and outside the European Union, and promoting cooperation among them). The regional information centers for science and technology cooperation have been launched in Voronezh, Tomsk and Rostov-on-Don.

Second, by its executive order #62, dated 21 February 2007, the Ministry of education and science of the Russian Federation has established at the same time the following national contact points for the Seventh Framework Programme areas: Public Health, Information and Communication Technologies, Nanotechnologies, Biotechnologies, Energy, Sociology, Mobility and International cooperation, as well as Small- and Medium-sized business. They have carried out a survey to determine the best practices of cooperation with the EU scientific institutions and an ”stock inventory” of agreements signed by Russia and the EU and between Russia and individual EU member states. Despite the importance of this activity it is clear that it stands quite apart from practical scientific and technological cooperation.

The current goal of the European Union is to strengthen and optimize the linkage between the scientific research and innovations as well as to support small- and medium-sized businesses along with the promotion of the knowledge-based society in Europe. So far Russia objectively has not been ready for a full-scale participation in the European innovation-targeted programmes, primarily, due to the absence of sufficient number of technologically advanced small- and medium-sized enterprises. Currently 440 Russian entities are participating in 264 grant agreements with the EU in the area of technological cooperation for the total amount of €60 million. Even though this is the case the foreign experts openly say – They impose conditions that we must come to this country, invest money, but do not guarantee anything … In Russia they trust western products, western machines, computers etc – but do not want to know anything about how this merchandise is produced …

Germany and France are the most active among the European countries in developing the contacts with the Russian science. As is known this long-standing cooperation is dating back to the times when Peter I commissioned a project to Leibniz to establish the Academy of Science and reproduce the system of higher education in Russia following the German example. Today, the Federal Ministry of Education and Scientific Research, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), German Research Association (DFG), and numerous foundations and societies are providing their patronage from the German side to that partnership.

The Russian science has enjoyed long established contacts with France, primarily, in such applied science areas as aircraft construction, outer space, mathematics and electronics. Since 2004 the cooperation between Russian and French researchers has been developing in the framework of joint research institutions – international associated laboratories and international scientific associations. The Poncelet Laboratory joint international mathematics unit which has been operational in Moscow since 2006 is the most complex form of cooperation. The research co-financing arrangements for Russian scientists introduced last decade by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research has much contributed to such cooperation. At present almost 20% of all the activities of the National Scientific Research Center of France are related to Russia and CIS. Organizationally the scientific cooperation with Russia has been formalized on the basis of the framework agreements with the Russian Academy of Science, RFBR and Russian Humanitarian Scientific Foundation.

Pragmatism today is the basis for developing Russian-European humanitarian cooperation. In the areas where Russia is perceived by the European Union as an equal partner the practical cooperation is developing with success.

Culture in motion. The Culture Programme:
2007-2013

The domestic science is expanding its contacts with the expatriate researchers from the Russian-speaking community in Europe (http://dialog.extech.ru/; http://www.researcher-at.ru). As Viktor Supian, Doctor of economic sciences, has noted “information about the scope of the real “brain drain” from Russia is rather sketchy and inaccurate”. Estimates sometimes differ by an order of magnitude. This is also due to the fact that Russian scientists do not formally emigrate but leave Russia to work by contract albeit their short-term appointment often becomes permanent. The interaction between the community and scientists is being promoted by the Federal Initiative to attract leading scientists, including foreign scientists, to Russian higher education institutions; as well as by various foundations. The number of Russian research institutions that have signed international scientific cooperation agreements with the help from the expatriate community is growing. In line with the overall global trends the scope and forms of network interaction between Russian scientists and their compatriots abroad continue to expand. It is symbolic that the EU-Russia Summit held in Brussels in December 2012 announced 2014 as the year of Russia-EU scientific and technological cooperation.

Culture

The classical forms of cultural cooperation between Russia and the European Union such as tours and concerts, exhibitions and publishing activities have also a long standing history. Nevertheless they should be substantially expanded in the post-industrial era. The activities within the EU cultural policy can serve as an example of measures going in this direction. In the European Union the cultural heritage values are being promoted, inter alia, at the supra-national level through the Framework Culture Programme (2007-2013). This is for instance to ensure the more democratic access of Europeans to cultural achievements, by the large scale digitizing of major libraries and museum collections, financial support of national filmmaking and TV industry, development of language culture, programs to promote advanced culture and science, as well as measures to improve ”computer literacy” of the population.

On the whole pragmatism today is the basis for developing Russian-European humanitarian cooperation. In the areas where Russia is perceived by the European Union as an equal partner the practical cooperation is developing with success.