State Support for Shared Research Facilities: Any Results Yet?

Introduction. The article is based on the findings collected by monitoring the Russian Сore Shared Research Facilities (CSRF) and Large-Scale Research Facilities (LSRF). The monitoring is carried out annually by RIEPL specialists on behalf of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia. The author suggests that the CSRFs and LSRFs sponsored by the state under the federal target programme Research and Development in Priority Areas of Development in Science and Technology in Russia for 2014-2021 stand to deliver high performance across the key indicators, namely the number of external users, value of the work performed for their benefit, and actual workload on research equipment in the interests of external users. Monitoring Tools. The empirical basis of the study is the reporting data for 2014-2020, obtained from CSRFs and LSRFs representatives through the use of the web forms on the portal http://ckp-rf.ru. Results. In the group of sponsored CSRFs, the high growth rate in the number of external users and the average value of the work completed was due to the expansion of the range of services through the use of equipment purchased under the Federal Target Programme. The growth rate of the actual workload proved to be lower compared to the other groups. In the group of sponsored LSRFs, only the actual workload values showed some growth. The growth rate in the number of external users was lower compared to the non-sponsored facility group; the growth rate in the value of work performed did not change from the 2014 baseline. It is, therefore, concluded that there is a need to abandon the competitive financing of shared use infrastructure in favour of targeted financing. Conclusion. The results may be useful in assessing the state of the Russian research infrastructure and divising guidelines for its continued support.