General Director of Russian Science Foundation gives lecture at KFU

Our university is fourth in Russia in terms of Russian Science Foundation-funded projects, and it was one of the stops in Alexander Khlunov’s tour.

Khlunov has been at RSF’s helm for almost a decade. He said that the Foundation has 7 thousand experts in all fields of knowledge to evaluate and select grant applications. In 2022, RSF provided 32 billion rubles in funding to 8,200 projects. This year, the funding is increased to 40 billion rubles.

In the evaluation process, there are three criteria with different weight ratio – 40% of the final mark are for reputation, 40% for novelty, and 20% for research staff and management.

Khlunov mentioned that RSF will expand cooperation with Asian colleagues, including such foundations and organizations in China.

As for KFU’s achievements, the speaker said, “This is a huge result for Kazan University. It’s to the merit of those who persevere in tough competition for grant support. Your dynamics are promising. The KFU leadership indeed has much to be proud of.”

He also said that Kazan University has to increase its representation among RSF experts, “One KFU employee in the KFU Expert Board is really not enough. We have to think how to increase this number. It gives you the opportunity to see a big picture of fundametnal science. That’s very important for the university’s development and the choice of topics in public-funded research and other areas.”