A consortium of scientists and businessmen will develop the economy of the North Caucasus Federal District
A network of 15 diversified scientific and educational centers (RECs) is being created in Russia, which should unite universities, scientific organizations and enterprises so that by 2024 the country will enter the top five countries in the world in terms of the number of scientific research and innovative developments. This is done within the framework of the national project “Science”. One of the REC, called «Elbrus 5642», is being formed in three republics of the North Caucasus — Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia and Karachay-Cherkessia. What it will give to the district and the country, the RG correspondent learned from the director of the Center for Advanced Materials and Additive Technologies of the Kabardino-Balkarian State University Svetlana Khashirova, Doctor of Chemical Sciences. RG: Svetlana Yurievna, who will join the consortium and what will it specialize in? Svetlana Khashirova:
«The initiative to create such centers should come from the leadership of the regions. Three republics of the North Caucasus are now ready to enter ours. This work is coordinated by the Kabardino-Balkarian State University. The full name of our REC “Neutrinos, intelligent systems, new generation materials and green economy” is “Elbrus 5642”. It reflects the unique educational technologies available in our constituent entities, which we will consolidate and develop by attracting partners. Our regions have similar socio-economic indicators, they are low, which is associated with weak network interaction and unrealized intellectual potential, that is, the goal is purely practical — to correct the situation and get rid of the status of a subsidized district.
Now 30 organizations are ready to pool their resources, including companies with offices in 46 countries, they have 5,800 partners. Actually, our task is to gather the best minds and involve them in joint work so that we can put their best practices into practice. About 30 meetings have already been held between the organizers and participants of the consortium. To date, 19 complex scientific and technical projects have been formed for 10 of the 12 markets of the national technology initiative. RG: The first direction in the name of the REC is the direction “Neutrino”. Why is it? What progress has already been made in the Caucasus in the study of elementary particles? Svetlana Khashirova: One of the largest underground laboratories for studying neutrinos is located in the KBR, and our university is also actively working in this direction. There is a world-class scientific and technical reserve.
No one in the country, except us, has such competencies in this area. Moreover, not only fundamental research is being carried out. Applied neutrino research at industrial and nuclear reactors is already reaching a new level, inside which processes important for nuclear energy are studied with the help of antineutrinos. This cluster includes a special astrophysical observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which is located in Arkhyz. This is the largest analytical center for ground-based observations of the Universe, which has a six-meter BTA optical reflector (the largest in Eurasia) and the RATAN-600 ring radio telescope.
The Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the North Ossetian State University are also members of the consortium. RG: Are there experts in the field of intelligent systems in the regions of the North Caucasus Federal District? Svetlana Khashirova: Intelligent systems is a large-scale area, it includes neural network video analytics, artificial intelligence, robotics and everything connected with them. Since 2016, we have been cooperating in this area with AxxonSoft, a software company. Director of the enterprise Murat Altuev is from Nalchik, his specialists are happy to work with students and scientists of the North Caucasus Federal District and support them in every possible way. Now the company sells software for video recognition from surveillance cameras to a hundred countries for almost a hundred million dollars a year and is one of the three largest in this area. They are also involved in the processing of so-called big data, what is known in the world as “big data”.
This will help research, including neutrinos, because our observatory receives huge amounts of data. Moreover, the BEST experiment (Baksan Experiment on Sterile Transitions) is currently underway, the purpose of which is to find a sterile neutrino. This is a world-class experiment that the Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences has been preparing for several years together with the National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute”, Rosatom and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna. RG: Another cluster of the consortium will deal with new generation materials. Polymers have been studied at KBSU for a long time. Are they limited to everything? Svetlana Khashirova:
«We have a lot of developments based on new generation materials. Naturally, the driving force will be the Center for Advanced Materials and Additive Technologies, where we are engaged in superstructural polymers for the space industry, medicine and other high-tech industries. We will also deal with superconductors — materials based on tungsten and molybdenum, on which there are also significant developments, because KBSU has been cooperating with the tungsten-molybdenum plant in Tyrnyauz for many years. Now Rostec has taken up the restoration of combinat, so if we combine our competencies, we can achieve a big breakthrough. We are talking about obtaining superconductors and ultrapure powders of rare earth elements. They are used in nuclear reactors and the defense industry. RG: At first glance, one more direction of the REC stands out from this series — the “green economy”.
Svetlana Khashirova: As for the green economy cluster, we are talking about the creation of new technologies for agriculture, waste processing and the production of environmentally friendly products. It is not necessary that everything in the scientific and educational center be directly interconnected. We are trying to develop the most important areas — the growth points of the regions. In the field of agricultural research in Kabardino-Balkaria, there is a powerful reference center with high-quality equipment. Here they monitor the state of soils, study products grown using new technologies. RG: In Russia, production workers constantly complain about scientists that they do not work for them. University graduates come out with knowledge that is not needed in practice.
And scientists say that these enterprises do not want to cooperate with them, and therefore educational programs lag behind real needs. Does it make sense in this situation to create a REC? Svetlana Khashirova: Yes, there is such a problem. Therefore, the creation of a consortium presupposes effective interaction between representatives of education, science, business and government. Our consortium includes the Design Center for Market Prototyping and the Elpa Research Institute, which have advanced competencies in the field of digital infrastructure and education. This will make it possible to implement, together with the enterprises of the Zelenograd Cluster OPK, the pilot projects Digital City and Digital University 20.35. Of course, one of the main tasks of the REC is the development of educational technologies, which must necessarily meet the needs of the economy.
We plan to introduce project-based learning, deal with the tasks set by the enterprises of the region, create groups to solve each of them. And those specialists who worked on some project at the request of the company can then find a job with the customer. And this is just one of the possible forms of interaction, there are actually many options. The plans are ambitious — within five years to create 25 new high-tech activities and 3,500 high-tech jobs that are interesting for young people. By 2025, it is necessary to double the GRP of the republic, while the share of Elbrus 5642 will be 18 percent. Not so much budgetary funds are invested in the REC.
Most of it will come from manufacturing. The ratio will be 70 to 30. The state will primarily finance fundamental research. It is important that the creation of the REC allows enterprises to receive many preferences. For example, participants in the national project «Science» are invited to provide tax benefits. Those who produce high-tech products can be exempt from paying income tax. There are additional preferences within the framework of competitions for scientific and innovation funds, it becomes possible to organize a venture fund. Our REC will have a supervisory board, which will include respected scientists.
They will monitor which projects are selected for funding. In addition, it will be necessary to obtain a certain number of patents, introduce developments into production, and create start-up companies based on them. Those RECs that have already been created show very good results. Huge grants are allocated for scientific projects. In any case, there will simply be no innovative production without scientists.