The reform of the RAS 2013 and its consequences for regional scientific centers (on the example of the Siberian Branch of the RAS)

The reform of the RAS 2013 interrupted the long-term strategy of the Russian Academy of Sciences for the consistent development of regional scientific potential. The essence of this strategy was to gradually build up “scientific” forces in the field and to organize them first in branches and then in scientific centers of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR / RAS. Regional scientific complexes have come a long way in their formation: from single laboratories and stations at the beginning of the 20th century to interdisciplinary scientific and educational complexes of the XXI century. The regional scientific centers of the Russian Academy of Sciences have proven their effectiveness as centers that coordinate and manage the activities of scientists both vertically and horizontally. The article shows the history of the formation of a system of scientific centers, coordination and management of scientific research in the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1957. On the eve of the 2013 reform, the SB RAS represented a system of nine research centers located in Western and Eastern Siberia. The results of the policy of optimization of scientific potential, and, in fact, “collapse” of a number of scientific centers of the SB RAS, are analyzed. This policy was pursued by the Federal Agency for Scientific Organizations (FANO) in 2013–2018 and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation in 2018–2019.