# **II.2. Human Capital for R&D**

Despite universities being the focus of the research commercialization policy, university researchers represent the smallest proportion among total researchers in institutions conducting R&D. While university-based researchers account for 5.3 percent of the total, research institutes (mostly under the RAS) account for 59.9 percent of the total, design bureaus (linked with ministries, such as interior or defense) 22 percent, and industrial enterprises 6.8 percent (Higher School of Economics 2010).

Moreover, the number of university researchers has not kept pace with the increase in total faculty staff. Thus, the share of faculty engaged in research has fallen, from 24 percent in 1996 to 19 percent in 2008. The number of university-based researchers climbed by only 10 percent from 26,300 to 28,900 between 1996 and 2008, while the number of faculty increased from 243,000 to 341,100, a 40 percent rise. This trend is worrisome for the policy objective to increase the number of spinoffs from university publicly funded research, because the critical human mass to create a deal flow of inventions is small or stagnant at best.

Despite the relative decline in the number of researchers, Russia may have too many researchers given its level of R&D spending. While U.S. R&D expenditures are two times Russia’s and Sweden’s is three times, the number of researchers in the United States is only 1.2 times Russia’s and Sweden’s is 1.5 times. In other words, the average R&D resources available for each researcher fall short of those in more advanced economies. Furthermore, over 70 percent of researchers in Russia hold no advanced scientific degree (UNESCO 2010).

The composition of R&D personnel in Russia reveals an unhealthy imbalance, with too few researchers relative to auxiliary personnel. Unlike many other countries, researchers in Russia account for less than half of R&D personnel: 375,800 (or 49 percent) in 2008. The rest are mainly support and auxiliary staff (43 percent), rather than technicians serving the scientific process (8 percent). As a result, Russia ranks 10th globally in the number of people engaged in R&D per 10,000 employees but 19th in researchers.

Russian R&D human capital is aging, while the share of middle-career researchers, the ones most likely to publish, is decreasing. Among R&D personnel, 57 percent or more of researchers with the highest skills, proxied by a PhD degree, have passed the official retirement age (Table 5).<sup>6</sup> In 2008, researchers were 49 years old on average, against an average of 40 for those working in the national economy as a whole (UNCTAD 2010).

Average wages for researchers are low and uncompetitive in the international market. Researchers working in public research institutions, the private sector, or higher education institutions cannot expect to earn more than US$ 600 a month. Though there is a large variance in salary levels within the

**Table 5: Age of researchers by educational attainment**

||||Year||
|---|---|---|---|---|
||Age category (years)|2002|2004|2006|
||70 and older|3.8|4.6|5.9|
|ers|60–69|17.9|17.4|17.2|
|rch|50–59|27|27.8|27.8|
|sea|40–49|23.9|21.9|19|
|Re|30–39|13.8|13|13.1|
||Under 29|13.5|15.4|17|
||70 and older|20.3|22.2|24.7|
||60–69|36.1|34|32.4|
|Ds|50–59|28.1|29.7|29.9|
|Ph|40–49|13.5|12.3|11.3|
||30–39|2|1.6|1.8|
||Under 29|0.2|0.1|0.1|
|f|70 and older|5.9|7.4|9.7|
|s o<br>e|60–69|26.4|25.1|23.8|
|ate<br>enc|50–59|28.5|28.9|29|
|did<br>ci|40–49|23.5|21.4|18.8|
|an<br>S|30–39|12.1|13|14.3|
|C|Under 29|3.5|4.1|4.5|

Source: Indicators of Science (2009) – MoES, ROSSTAT and the Higher School of Economics

> 6 55 years for women and 60 for men.

15