Science Matters to Everyone

Experts of the Vyzov Foundation have analyzed 182 Russian scientific awards, including prizes awarded for promoting science. This research, to coincide with the Russian Science Day, looks at the awards based on the size of the prize fund, categories, nomination process, and other criteria.

The combined prize pool of the awards reviewed exceeds 640 million rubles. Vyzov Foundation researchers divided them into categories according to their scope: regional, national and international. Regional awards in the fields of science, technologies, and popularization of achievements of Russian scientists, funded by governors, local authorities etc., exist in 62 regions and federal cities. Moscow leads the way in terms of the number of awards – local organizations give out 37 prizes. It is followed by Saint Petersburg and Tatarstan (19 awards each), Yakutia (7), and the Tula Region (5).

The vast majority of awards (74%) are given in the field of "science and technology", covering both fundamental research and applied sciences. This is largely due to the fact that most awards (77%) are sponsored by the governmental and are designed to include projects from virtually all fields. The remaining awards are administered by non-profit organizations (foundations, professional associations), scientific institutions (branches of the Russian Academy of Sciences, universities), and businesses. These prizes are usually more specialized. The most common categories are engineering, humanities and social sciences, mathematics and computer science, biology and life sciences, chemistry and materials sciences.
One of the key factors was the transparency of the process for selecting winners, including public availability of award regulations, eligibility requirements, application procedures, and other crucial information. Out of all awards featured in the analysis, only six lack regulations regarding the prize procedures and eligibility criteria. Meanwhile, some regional awards do not have a user-friendly landing page with all essential information - announcements about 42 such awards are made only through the media or on local authorities' websites.

Nomination procedure presents a much more serious barrier. In case of 75% of all awards, candidates can only be nominated. As a rule, the nomination rights are reserved for public authorities and collegial bodies within organizations (e.g., academic councils). This makes the most widespread award category the least accessible: applicants cannot be self-nominated for 86% of regional awards.

Most awards are established by regional regulative acts, usually by decrees of regional leaders. Some prizes are included in the regional award system, while two are defined as social benefits. The vast majority of awards go by "reward measure" in regulations, regardless of sector or scope. The second most popular goal is a "means of regional development", while "means of supporting scientists" ranks third.

The largest award in terms of monetary value is the Sber Science Award, at 20 million rubles. Other top prizes include the Global Energy Prize (around 13 million rubles), the VYZOV Prize (11 million rubles), the Russian State Prize for Science and Technology (10 million rubles), and the Presidential Prize in Science and Innovation for Young Scientists (5 million rubles). The average amount of the awards covered by the study with publicly available prize funds is 480,180 rubles. This is significantly higher than the median value (100,000 rubles). There is also a strong geographical factor behind the gap in the monetary amount of awards. For instance, Moscow-based awards account for 74% of the total Russian prize pool (approximately 479 million rubles) and 49% (120.7 million rubles) of the prize pool for regional awards.

In conclusion, the study conducted by the Vyzov Foundation experts reveals that Russia has at least 182 awards that recognize scientific and technological achievements as well as efforts in popularization of science, with almost 1,500 individual prizes. Only 1% have a prize fund that exceeds 10 million rubles, including the VYZOV National Prize for Future Technologies. However, we see that prizes are a popular tool for supporting scientists, which demonstrates the significance of research projects for our country. It shows that science matters to everyone.

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