Наука.рф: "Science and universities": the main achievements of 2022
The national project "Science and Universities" is aimed at increasing the attractiveness of Russian science and higher education. The national project promotes the creation of world-class scientific and educational centres, advanced research and training infrastructure, and a network of modern universities. Russia is expected to become one of the world’s top ten countries to develop in priority areas of scientific and technological advances.
‘Achieving technological sovereignty, as President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said, is impossible without support for scholars and the development of research infrastructure. As part of the Decade of Science and Technology and the national project "Science and Universities", this year more than 200 youth laboratories have been set up across the country, and the instrumentation base of 204 research institutions in 36 regions of the country has been upgraded. Additionally, the Far Eastern track of the Priority 2030 programme for university development has been launched. Eight universities have received grants. We also continue to fulfil the President’s instruction to build world-class campuses. Projects in eight regions are already underway. This year, the government has selected nine more applications from constituent entities to create university campuses,’ said Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko.
National Technology Initiative Competence Centres
Twenty one National Technology Initiative (NTI) Competence Centres have been established to: overcome technological barriers in the NTI markets; translate fundamental scientific results and ideas through the implementation of applied research into specific technologies and products for the benefit of Russian technology companies; and provide a sustainable link between the academic environment and industrial partners through joint activities within the consortium. A total of 23 centres were selected between 2017 and 2022.
The NTI Competence Centres are making an invaluable contribution to the development of the country’s technological sovereignty. For example, a decentralised interbank financial messaging system − an alternative to SWIFT based on blockchain technology − was developed in 2022. A pilot project for a university quantum network was launched, and technologies were created to protect artificial intelligence systems from malicious or accidental influences affecting the validity of work results.
In July 2022, the Distributed Ledger Technologies Centre at St Petersburg University began testing a developed analogue of the SWIFT system. The key feature of DCMS (DeCentral Message System, or DCMS − a decentralised international system of interbank financial messages) is that each of its participants stores transaction information and owns the system as a whole on the equal basis with other participants − whether it be a bank from Russia or a bank abroad. This approach completely eliminates the possibility of illegal disconnection, because there is no single owner who can restrict access to others. Distributed ledger technologies guarantee the safety of all transactions and the openness of the information system. Each participant receives a full-fledged financial instrument that they can use for their own purposes without fear that the solution may be taken away by someone or you may be disconnected from the system. Each bank that uses the system has the right not to accept payments, if, for example, this violates its legislation or corporate rules.
Despite the absence of a single owner, the use of the DCMS does not infringe on the rights of the regulators of the participating countries. Quite on the contrary, it increases confidence in the system as a whole and eliminates the risk of involuntary disconnection from the system. To ensure that the SWIFT analogue operates successfully, not all countries need to be connected to the new system. It makes it possible to build many autonomous small networks. In future, they can be automatically combined. For example, two or more banks in one African country may start using the DCMS to exchange financial messages with each other. Then, two or more banks in one Asian country can also start using the system. Once one of these African banks exchanges messages with an Asian bank, both networks will merge and everyone will be able to exchange financial messages with each other. Over time, the number of such autonomous networks will increase, and the networks will become larger. Each participating country will have an open, independent solution to ensure all technical and financial processes.
The full text is available on Наука.рф.