Anton Braginets: ‘Digitalisation is always a means, not an end in itself’

In the course of development of the GovTech platform, you participated in the meetings of the working group on Nauka domain. Is science well regulated by legislation today? Are there any regulatory issues that are in need of improvement?

When talking about Nauka domain, we mean a range of digital services that are to be built on the basis of the unified digital platform ‘GovTech’ to help researchers in their activities. These include: a digital researcher profile; a virtual project management office; and a research exchange to name but a few. Our working group on Nauka domain unites experts from St Petersburg University and representatives of other competence centres: Skolkovo Innovation Centre and Kutafin Moscow State Law University. Our main task was to: identify regulatory barriers that currently impede the development of the domain services; and find the optimal ways to eliminate these barriers.

In the course of the project, it has been discovered that the implementation of some of the proposed services does require changes to the existing regulatory landscape. For example, one of the domain services was assumed to enable potential customers and contractors to participate in procurement auctions and conclude contracts for services in research and development directly on the platform. However, under current legislation, if the customer is a public body or institution, the relevant procurement procedures can be carried out only on a few specialised digital platforms. Hence, it would be impossible to implement such a service without initiating amendments to the legislation on public procurement. To deal with this issue, we have to identify the specific legal norms that need amendments. Furthermore, the regulatory amendments should be systematic to avoid potential conflicts with other legal norms causing new issues with regulatory compliance.

There are certain challenges to overcome, related to the fact that potential obstacles to the implementation of the domain services can be addressed in a few alternative ways. For example, the platform operator can process the personal data of the scientific community members after obtaining consents given on a voluntary basis or without obtaining consents from data subjects. In the latter scenario, however, it would be necessary to supplement the current legislation with rules allowing the operator of Nauka domain to process users’ personal data without their consent. In such circumstances, it becomes necessary to estimate and compare the costs associated with the collection of consents from all individuals whose data are required for the operation of the services with the potential challenges associated with introducing changes to the regulatory framework.

On the other hand, a large number of cases have been identified where the anticipated legal impediments turned out to be putative. In other words, it has been proposed that issues that can be resolved without any regulatory intervention should be regulated by the law norms (e.g. through agreements with the domain users). Moreover, in the course of discussions with legal experts, it has become clear that in some cases the new regulations can only do harm by restricting the freedom of economic activity of research organisations. In particular, this concerns the mandatory guidelines on cost estimations for research projects.

What are the particular challenges that developers of digital services in this field may face? Could you give some suggestions on how to deal with them?

The regulatory barriers to the implementation of digital services in scientific sphere are not much different from the legal impediments to digitalisation in general. Thus, many digital services require connection to the existing e-government ecosystem, including existing digital identity verification services. Legally speaking, however, not every organisation can connect to the Unified Identification or Authentication System (the Public Services Portal "Gosuslugi") or to the Interagency Electronic Interaction Network. Hence, initiators of the digital transformation are forced to raise the issue of expanding the circle of customers who can connect to the existing electronic government systems.

Another common issue is data regulation. On the one hand, there are a large number of mandatory standards for handling information (for example, regulations on personal data processing, which are being constantly supplemented by new rules). On the other hand, even in cases where access to information is not restricted by regulations, it may be difficult for interested parties to gain access to the information due to its inaccessibility. It is therefore required that we create incentives for members of the scientific community to be more willing to share unclassified information that can be used by a wide range of consumers in the public interest.

Obviously, when talking about information services, one cannot ignore information security laws and regulations. The higher the value of a service for users, the more it attracts potentially malicious attacks. At the same time, while recognising the importance of ensuring the security of digital services, we should strive to switch from the multitude of formal requirements to a set of practical and concise guidelines. Simply speaking, we need to move away from "security on paper" to consistent practices for defending information systems.

Also, we should keep in mind that each of the above issues should be dealt with individually. There is no one-size-fits-all solution that would remove all the obstacles in one go. This is largely due to the fact that each of the legal impediments comes from its own, rather specific area of regulation, unrelated to science.

What other aspects of social and civic life, in your opinion, can be facilitated by digital transformation?

Digitalisation is always a means, not an end in itself. Hence, it is needed wherever the electronic workflow management systems are much more efficient than the traditional paper-based, offline workflow administration.

It is no secret that organisation and management of research activities are associated with a great many bureaucratic procedures. These involve substantial documentation: applications, contracts, and reports to name but a few. It is obvious that the potential for streamlining of workflow processes by creating universal and convenient digital services has not been exhausted. As an example, consider a situation when a grant recipient needs to prepare reports on the outcomes of their research project.

Huge resources are diverted to preparing documentation, and the lion’s share of efforts is expended on filling in a lot of tables and avoiding mistakes when filling them in. The unification of requirements for such documentation, its mandatory conversion into electronic form, and building a knowledge base where users can find document templates for various typical situations — all these are in highest demand today.

Indeed, it is important not just to transfer paper-based processes into electronic form. No less important is the quality of the digital transformation. The scientific community needs digital services at the level of "Gosuslugi", not just digitalisation for the sake of digitalisation.