ASU Rector Talks at SPIEF about the Role of Society in Development of Science

Konstantin Markelov has attended discussion “Big Challenges — New Partnership: How to Develop the Union of Science and Society”. Minister of Science and Higher Education of Russia Valery Falkov spoke at the event, and Assistant to the President of Russia Andrey Fursenko moderated the meeting.

Participants paid special attention to the involvement of children in science. According to experts, more than 60% of parents would be happy if their children dedicated their careers to research and development, and every tenth student sees his/her future in science.

One of the problematic issues, discussed at the event, was poor awareness of the Russian citizens about domestic scientists and their developments. The results of the sociological survey showed that many citizens of Russia found it difficult to name modern Russian researchers, recalling mainly the names of Soviet scientists. In their view, science ended together with the Soviet Union, and since then nothing new has been done, and the most outstanding “scientist” of our time is Elon Musk.

The leading speakers of Russia discussed ways to solve the problem and shared their own experience and ideas. Thus, a New Knowledge marathon was presented, aimed at involving young people in the scientific community. Valery Falkov noted that in order to attract young people, it is necessary to develop all levels of education and work on the interface and language of science so that they are accessible to society.