Aleksandr Germanenko: "We Aim at Developing World-Class Research and Development"

12:28, February 6, 2023

The Vice-Rector for Science spoke about the achievements of the university's scientists

Aleksandr Germanenko, the Vice-Rector for Science at the Ural Federal University, spoke about the diversity of university science, its progress and achievements in the latest issue of the Ural Federal newspaper (No. 2, February 6).

Priority and More

- The year 2022 was the first year of implementation of the Priority 2030 strategic academic leadership program. What are the results achieved by the Ural Federal University?

- From this point of view, the year 2022 was very important for our university. We confidently entered the competitive procedures for funding our research projects. The projects were successfully launched. In accordance with the Priority Program 2030 program, the Ural Federal University is implementing three scientific and technological projects: "Materials and Technologies for Nuclear and Hydrogen Energy", "Design and Technology of Functional Materials and Systems", and "Human Welfare in Digital Transformation".

Last year, the Research Institute for Hydrogen Energy and the Center for Population Studies were established within the walls of the university. The results of the research activities range from the creation of prototypes to finished materials for electrochemical energy conversion and storage devices.

In addition, we continue to implement major scientific projects to study interstellar and near-stellar space. We are also working to develop corrosion and heat-resistant structural materials for liquid-salt reactors. We are developing technologies for reprocessing and recycling spent nuclear fuel and modernizing metallurgical furnaces. We are also working on the development of the Ural Carbon Test Site for the development of climate change models and carbon balance mechanisms.

At the end of 2022, research and development work was financed for more than 2.5 billion rubles. A year earlier it was 2.3 billion.

- Most of the research projects of the Ural Federal University are carried out in the interests of business and at the expense of the real sector of the economy. How much money are we talking about?

- We have several large partners whose orders for R&D and technology development exceed 100 million rubles per year. For example, Rosatom State Corporation. We carry out more than 20 R&D projects for Rosatom every year. The main areas are materials and devices for hydrogen energy, technologies for large-scale production of permanent magnets, including 3D printing methods. We are also engaged in the development of recycling of waste from their production, new structural materials for liquid salt nuclear reactors, technology for obtaining zirconium of nuclear purity. Last year the total amount of work reached 500 million rubles.

Making way for the young

- The fourth strategic project within the Priority 2030 program is "Academic Excellence"...

- Last year, the most important university-wide activities within the Priority 2030 program were carried out within the framework of this project. According to the results of its implementation, our university should become an integrator of university, academic science and industry. Therefore, we are striving to develop world-class research and carry out as many developments as possible in the interests of the real economy.

Three types of development projects are being implemented within the framework of the "Academic Excellence" strategic project. These are projects for the creation and development of laboratories under the direction of visiting leading scientists, projects for the creation and development of youth scientific laboratories, and finally, projects for the creation of technologies for the transfer of R&D results to the real sector of the economy. Twelve laboratories were established and five projects were supported. The winners were selected on the basis of an expert assessment conducted by specialists from the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In addition, 26 scientific centers of excellence have been created at the Ural Federal University, each of which receives up to 2.7 million rubles to finance R&D.

The Ural Federal University successfully implements several programs to attract effective Russian and foreign researchers.  The programs are aimed at both young and established scientists. In 2022, 27 young scientists under the age of 39 with doctoral degrees were working within the UrFU Postdoc Program. Among them were 12 highly qualified specialists. The quality of their publications last year was twice as high as the university average.

The scientific integration of the university with the institutes of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences is actively developing. Last year 17 joint research laboratories were in operation. Twelve research projects carried out by the joint laboratories were also funded by Academic Excellence. According to the results of the year, the share of publications co-authored by scientists of the Ural Federal University and academic institutes is expected to be about 35 percent.

- The Priority 2030 program puts a special emphasis on the development of young scientists. You have already addressed this issue by talking about youth research labs and postdoctoral fellows. How else does the Ural Federal University support its young scientists?

- Currently, there are 12 scientific laboratories at the university that have the status of youth laboratories. Six of them are laboratories created, as I said, with the financial support of the Priority 2030 program. Six other youth laboratories have been created and are funded under an agreement with the Ministry of Education and Science on the fulfillment of state tasks for scientific research. Two of these six are under the Ural Interregional Research and Education Center for Advanced Production Technologies and Materials. Last year the amount of financial support for youth research laboratories was more than 165 million rubles.

There are also individual grants to support the scientific work of young researchers. Last year, nearly fifty people received such grants. Regular seminars are held to teach young scientists how to prepare grant applications and plan scientific research using modern information technologies. More than 3,000 undergraduates, graduate students and young scientists have participated in these seminars.

Speaking specifically about postgraduate students, the system of targeted postgraduate studies that works at the Ural Federal University includes more than 50 people in total. Last year 27 scholarships were awarded. Seventeen of them went to foreigners. Ten doctoral students received research grants to help them complete their dissertations as quickly as possible.

In response, young people's interest in science is growing. In the past year, the number of researchers at the university has increased by about 200, about 80 percent of whom are young. There are now about 670 researchers at the university. Nearly 570 PhD students are enrolled in their first year. The total number of postgraduate students has grown to 1,380, and the number of foreign students has increased to 210. 45 UrFU employees have defended their PhD theses and three have defended their doctoral theses.

Today, more than 70 percent of our researchers are under the age of 39. In this way, we are laying the foundation for the future of the university as a research center not only in the region, but also in all of Russia.

- You mentioned grants for young scientists. The amount of grants reflects the importance of the university in the scientific world. What is the overall success of the Ural Federal University in this area?

- In 2022 the staff of our university won 103 grants - from the President and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, the Governor of the Sverdlovsk region, the Russian Science Foundation, and others. The total amount of grants exceeded 575 million rubles. In 2020 it will be about 490 million rubles and in 2021 about 500 million rubles. The team led by Chandra Ranu Brindaban won the very impressive mega-grant from the Russian government worth 90 million rubles. The topic of the grant is "Green methods and biotransformation technologies for creating promising materials for diagnostics and therapy of socially significant diseases, including covid and other viral infections, as well as new biopharmaceutical products".

UrFU in the Worldwide Dimension

- What can you say about the publication activity of our scientists?

- This criterion remains important for evaluating the research activities of the university and its staff. It gives an idea of the place of the university in the world science, especially in the basic science. In 2022 the researchers of the Ural Federal University published almost 2,650 scientific articles in foreign scientific journals indexed in the WoS and Scopus databases. This number is growing every year.

We will continue to improve the quality of our publications, both through our own projects and through external grants. By the end of 2022, the share of publications in leading scientific journals will be more than half. The system of university incentives for publications in leading scientific journals contributes to this.

At the same time, we create conditions for our scientists to meet the requirements. The Ural Federal University publishes 23 scientific journals, 12 of which are indexed in international databases and seven of which are indexed in the RSCI database. By the end of 2022, more than 280 articles by university employees will be published in the university's journals. In total, more than 970 articles will be published. In the coming year two more journals of the Ural Humanities Institute are planned to be registered: DAIS (Document. Archive. History. Modernity) and Voprosy Archaeologii.

Last year, university staff published more than 130 scientific monographs. Almost a fifth of them were published by international publishers. In 2020-2021, the number of monographs will be between 90 and 120.

The full version of the interview is in the Ural Federal newspaper.

Reference

The next issue of the Ural Federal will be published on February 20.

The news article was translated by UrFU International Marketing Office.
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