Competitions and grants. Rgnf and rffi: a special form of integration How modern communications affect young people

​Unfortunately, the topic of the new competition "oriented fundamental scientific research on topical interdisciplinary topics" by the RFBR is no longer surprising: it is a logical continuation of the policy of the current leadership of the foundation.

On February 29, 2016, the Russian government issued Order No. 352 providing for the reorganization of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) and the Russian Humanitarian Science Foundation (RHNF) by joining the RHNF to the RFBR. Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich commented on the order, indicating that the form of integration was proposed based on the ratio of the funding of funds, and the purpose of the merger is to increase the volume of interdisciplinary research, the possibility of acquiring new knowledge at the intersection of branches of science, as well as reducing the volume of administrative costs.

Representatives of the humanities, having learned about the government's order, expressed concerns that the accession of the Russian Humanitarian Science Foundation to the RFBR would lead to the fact that some activities specific to the humanities (for example, the publication of multivolume dictionaries) would not be supported by the joint fund. It seems, however, that the continuation of the policy of the current leadership of the RFBR poses a threat not only to the humanities.

One can look at the accession of the RHNF to the RFBR in different ways, but there is no doubt about one thing: the pooling of funds will contribute to "an increase in the volume of interdisciplinary research," the importance of which has been talked about with perseverance worthy of better use lately at the very top, as if interdisciplinarity is a panacea, and putting a tick "interdisciplinary" next to the name of the study automatically leads to its high relevance and effectiveness.

Even stranger is the one-year youth competition "mol_ev_a" ("Eureka! Idea"), in which young scientists or small youth groups (up to 5 people) could take part, offering non-standard, original ideas that contribute to the development or creation of new critical technologies in within the rubricator of the competition ". After this kind of contests for fruitful debut ideas for a million rubles a year, it is really time to think about improving the quality of expertise. Moreover, there are even more exciting plans ahead: in the decision of the RFBR Council of December 10, 2015, among the main activities of the fund in 2016, it was written: - Researcher"".

In principle, there is no reason to object to the holding of thematic, youth and other specialized competitions. The question is in the priorities and quality organization of the expertise. However, in conditions when there is a Russian Science Foundation capable of supporting the strongest research teams with solid grants by Russian standards, when applied research in priority areas is supported within the framework of the Federal Target Program for Research and Development, within the framework of the Bortnik Foundation programs (where there are also competitions for students and graduate students, and annual competitions for a million rubles), etc., when, finally, there are grants and scholarships of the President of Russia for young scientists, the RFBR should, it would seem, do what it was created for: first of all, by supporting projects by fields of science.

And there are no reasons that prevent projects from getting support within their framework, even in the field of "methods of search and analysis in local and global information resources of scientific, technical and technological solutions that meet the needs of the Russian economy, using methods of inductive machine learning, automatic classification and clustering of large volumes of data ", even in the field of light-emitting structures (sources of coherent radiation) based on organic semiconductors and liquid crystals."

But no, the current leadership of the RFBR is pursuing an exclusively opportunistic and hectic policy (of course, constantly keeping in mind its own interests and priorities). Youth support? Now we will develop a line of competitions for participants up to the school bench! Current trends and technologies? Now we will allocate and finance! And this whole feast of the human spirit is taking place with a constant reduction in the real financial content of basic grants of the "a" type, which now, taking into account inflation, are much lighter than 7-8 years ago.

In general, in my opinion, it is incorrect to assert that the humanities have serious reasons to fear the results of the merger of the RFBR and the Russian Humanitarian Science Foundation, while representatives of the natural sciences have nothing to fear. Because if the current policy of the RFBR leadership continues, in a few years the RFBR will cease to be a normal scientific foundation and will turn into a "saw-office", in which projects of "our own and necessary people" are intensively financed under the flag of current state priorities.

In fact, there is only one serious step left to take: to move from the allocation of topics close to the representatives of the RFBR leadership with increased funding of projects (under the pretext of their relevance and interdisciplinarity) to the formulation of particularly important specific research topics with even higher funding. As it was in the megalots of the Ministry of Education and Science at the end of the previous decade. And for mass grants "to support trousers" 15-20% of the fund's budget can be allocated. And it doesn't matter that the money will be penny: as one of the representatives of the RFBR leadership said at one meeting, this is not money, it is prestige, a kind of quality mark ...

Evgeny Onishchenko

The Russian Humanitarian Science Foundation was created by decree of the Government of the Russian Federation on September 8, 1994 with the aim of state support for the development of the humanities, augmenting accumulated scientific knowledge and disseminating it widely in society, reviving the traditions of the national humanitarian science. The activities of the RHNF are directed by the Council of the Foundation.

RHNF is a self-governing state organization, the funds of which are formed at the expense of state allocations and attracted funds. The Foundation supports scientific research in all areas of humanitarian knowledge: philosophy, political science, sociology, science of science, law, economics, history, archeology, ethnology, art history, philology, psychology, pedagogy, complex problems of human studies.

Scientific projects are supported on the basis of a thorough multi-stage independent scientific expertise. The expert system of the Russian Humanitarian Science Foundation consists of six expert councils:

• philosophy, sociology, political science, law, science of science
• problems of complex study of man
• history, archeology and ethnology
• the economy
• philology and art history
• information systems and telecommunications.

-research projects;
The Foundation supports research projects in the humanities and social sciences in areas 01 (history; archeology; ethnography), 02 (economics), 03 (philosophy; sociology; jurisprudence; political science; social history of science and technology; science of science), 04 (philology; art history) , 06 (comprehensive study of man; psychology; pedagogy; social problems of medicine and human ecology).
-publishing projects;
The Foundation supports scientific publications presenting the results of research in areas 01, 02, 03, 04, 06.
-projects for the development of scientific telecommunications and the material and technical base of humanitarian scientific research;
The Foundation accepts for consideration applications for the development of scientific telecommunications and the material and technical base of scientific research in areas 01, 02, 03, 04, 06.
-projects of organizing Russian and international scientific events on the territory of the Russian Federation;
Applications for holding scientific events (conferences, symposia, meetings, permanent scientific seminars, round tables, etc.) on topical problems of science in the areas 01, 02, 03, 04, 06 are accepted for consideration.
-projects of the participation of Russian scientists in scientific events abroad;
Individual applications for the participation of Russian scientists in scientific events abroad in areas 01, 02, 03, 04, 06 are accepted for consideration.
-projects of organizing expeditions, field, experimental and laboratory research and scientific restoration work;
The Foundation supports projects for the organization of expeditionary, field, experimental laboratory research and scientific restoration work, including statistical surveys, modeling socio-economic processes, development of methods for conducting experiments, scientific restoration work in areas 01, 02, 03, 04, 06.
-projects for the creation of information systems.
The Foundation supports projects for the creation of information systems (IS) for humanitarian research in areas of knowledge 01, 02, 03, 04, 06.

Since 1998, in order to consolidate the efforts of central and regional bodies to support science, regional competitions have been held.

The Foundation has a unique database on humanitarian research in Russia, conducts scientific research, is the founder of the journals "Bulletin of the Russian Humanitarian Scientific Foundation" and "Science of Science", regularly publishes the "Catalog of books published with the support of the Russian Foundation for the Humanities".

Material prepared according to the official website

If you want to enter the personal account of the RFBR information system - IS RHNF, simply enter the username that you previously entered to register your profile. The username should also be entered in the "username" field. Then enter your own password. Enter the password in the field with the name "password". We click the field with the name "enter". And with the correct entry of your own credentials, the login will be successful. When you have entered something incorrectly or just made a mistake by one character, the system will prompt that the data entered is incorrect, and you can again enter your own data and try to re-enter the system, to your personal account.

It doesn't matter if you just forgot your password. For such a case, the system has provided one step. You just enter your username and a field called "remind password". And after such an action, a letter comes to your mail, with the help of which you can recover your own password.

Registration in the personal account of the IS RHNF system

For those who have not yet been registered in the system, registration is offered.

Registration stages:

1. The field under the name "username" will be highlighted. At this point, you are required to enter an email address (the role of your email address is twofold: on the one hand, it will be the login itself, every time you log into the system, on the other hand, letters will come to it, and in case of a password loss, too) ...

2. You will see a field titled "password". In this place, you should enter a strong password with up to 25 characters.

In this article we will describe in detail all the information about the project. My first RFBR grant 2020... The Russian Foundation for Basic Research (hereinafter - RFBR) was established in 1992 in accordance with a presidential decree. RFBR was created on the initiative of the most respected scientists in our country, the purpose of creation is to select on a competitive basis scientific projects created by scientists for consideration and their further financial and organizational support.

One of the areas of the Foundation's work is to help research young employees. For this purpose, the implementation and financial support of several competitions for young scientists were realized, the most popular of such competitions is “My first grant”. A specialist under 35 years old, engaged in fundamental research, who has at least one published publication in the journal in the RSCI or WoS database, has the right to submit an application for an initial grant, count on financial support for his own project. The main requirements for the contestants and project content, a detailed application procedure will be presented below in this material.

1. Competition problems for "My first RFBR grant 2020"

2. How much funding can be obtained?

The project has been implemented for two years, and during the last such event, the “year” was considered not a calendar year, but was counted from the moment the results of the competition were approved. Designers are given half a million rubles each year to implement their idea.

3. Requirements for applicants and project content.

The application is submitted by one or more individuals (maximum - 5 people). In the latter case, it is necessary to select a project manager, other individuals will be the Executors.

It is impossible for the team to include:

1. Employees of the organization where the Head is listed, when he is subordinate to them by position (for example, the head of the laboratory in which the Head works).

2. Participants over 35 years old (at the time of the date specified in the competition documentation by the Foundation - as a rule, this is the date of summing up the competition results).

3. Persons already participating in the filing of another application for the same competition. Please note: if one person participates in any capacity (Executor or Leader) in 2 applications, then both of them do not undergo a formal examination of compliance with the competitive conditions and are removed from further consideration on the merits!

Minimum requirements for a project manager:

1. Higher education. This is one of the few grants that does not require a Leader's degree. It is quite a usual situation for applications for this project when there are young candidates of sciences in the team, although the Head does not yet have such a title.

2. Lack of leadership experience in relation to RFBR grants or RHNF projects. The project team, however, may contain Executors who previously managed or are currently managing grants from these funds, but the Leader may not have the above experience, because this is at odds with the competition objectives.

3. The presence of at least one material on the declared area in the journal included in the information base of the RSCI (or WoS). These are the minimum requirements for being able to apply, but one of the assessment criteria will be the level of scientific excellence, which is supported by publications. Thus, often one article on a topic may not be enough to obtain a good expert assessment on this criterion. If possible, publish multiple papers on similar or related topics before submitting a grant request. If there is a conviction that the application will receive good grades according to other criteria, then you can take part in a competitive participation with one material.

An application for a Project can be submitted when the Project itself:

1. Is a fundamental scientific research; during the examination, the fundamental nature of the study is assessed. It is important to keep in mind that project support in the absence of fundamentality is not carried out (even if the Project could receive high marks according to other criteria).

2. Corresponds to any of the directions:

3. Differs in content from projects supported by the Foundation or other institutions; does not coincide with planned works, which are financed from federal resources.

4. Application period.

The exact date and even the month of submitting applications for a grant is not known and changes annually, so you need to follow the news about competitions on the resource //www.rfbr.ru/rffi/ru/contest

5. Registration in KIAS (integrated information analytical system) of the Fund

The entire chain of technological steps from the submission of applications to the publication of the results of the competition is carried out in digital form and using the KIAS of the Fund.

Before submitting an application, all Project participants need to register with KIAS by following the link: //kias.rfbr.ru/reg/index.php.

In KIAS, potential participants need to register on their own, because they need to fill out information about themselves and receive a code via SMS to their personal cell phone number and enter it immediately on the site as confirmation.

To register, you need the following information: full name, date of birth, information on citizenship and the right to work, education, academic degree, academic degree and title, pension certificate number (SNILS), passport data, personal cell number, E- mail. Re-registration for one SNILS is unacceptable. At the same time, registration without SNILS number is not performed, that is, if the participant does not yet have SNILS, it must be completed before registration.

Then press the button "Confirm SMS number". After that, an SMS with a six-digit number - a password will be sent to the number you specified. Enter this password and after entering it, click the "Confirm" button. After completing these steps, the following message will appear next to the phone number: “Confirmed”.

Registration of "Consent"

To submit an application for a grant, all participants must also approve the Consent for confirmation of documents in electronic form, signed in KIAS with an ordinary digital signature, equivalent to paper documents, that is, to identify themselves.

The digital consent form will appear automatically in your personal account after completing the registration procedure and confirming the phone number for SMS messages. To do this, in the "Personal data" section, click the "Consent" button, follow the "Consent procedure" and "Step-by-step instructions" links. You will be offered a method of certification: in the organization where you work, or at the notary (consul), the form of Consent for printing will depend on the choice of option. The first is possible only in the organization with which you are in an employment relationship, and the second - for all Users, including those who do not work or work abroad. After choosing the method, you can print the Consent and certify it with the organization (usually in the HR department) or with a notary / consul. Do not sign it in advance, as an employee of the organization or a notary / consul certifies that the Consent was signed by you in their presence.

Further, the certified Consent must be sent to the RFBR by an ordinary (not valuable) letter to the address: Russia, 119334, Moscow, Leninsky Prospect, 32a, RFBR. In addition to the addresses of the sender and recipient, the envelope must contain the following: "Consent of the KIAS RFBR User to use electronic signature". The Foundation does not accept registered and valuable letters.

After receiving a paper signed copy of the Consent, the Foundation verifies that the data in the Consent match the information in the Personal card. If there is a match, a message about the completion of the Consent will appear in the Personal Account.

Usually the procedure takes 1-2 business days after the Fund receives the letter. If the period for submitting applications is coming to an end, use the services of a courier by paying for expedited letter delivery.

Submission of a project application

So, if you have decided which project you want to support, which team will implement it, registered all employees in KIAS, sent an electronic consent, then it's time to start filling out the forms in the digital application.

Be sure to read what forms and fields you need to fill out, pay attention to the fields marked with red stars, which are required.

Usually four forms are filled in: Information about the project (including filling in English), Information about the individual who proposed the Project, Information about the Organization, project content.

Form 1. Information about the project (and Form 1en. Information about the project in English).

This includes the following: the name of the Project, the digital code of the area of ​​knowledge, the main and additional codes of the scientific subject by the category of the Foundation, keywords, project annotation and some other information that is filled in automatically based on filling out other forms or conditions necessary for obtaining a grant.

All fields, including the title, are editable up to the moment the application is signed, therefore many applicants write / edit the annotation last, so that it fully matches the content of other sections.

The Foundation sends the project for examination, first of all, to those experts whose specialization coincides with the main discipline code you have chosen according to the RFBR classifier. In addition, during the examination of projects, the correspondence of the project topic to the main code of the classifier is taken into account, so take your choice of discipline seriously.

Some fields contain requirements for volume and content, for example, "Abstract" (maximum half a page, including briefly - relevance, level of significance and scientific novelty of the research; expected results, their significance), "Keywords" (both single words and phrases are defined , indicating the project content as fully as possible: maximum 15 pieces, in lowercase characters, list separated by commas). Stick to them, be sure to follow the requirements. Let's say "additive technologies" would count as one keyword.

If the Foundation provides assistance to the project, the title and the project annotation will be posted on the foundation's resource, so if you apply for a patentable study, then do not disclose its entire essence in the annotation.

Form 2. Information about the member of the team who applied for the Competition

After creating an application and inviting individuals to the project, such information is entered automatically based on data from the personal cards of all project members.

The data in your personal account must be filled out carefully, since they will then be displayed in the form: participation in other projects, the field of scientific research (keywords and codes for the RFBR category), achievements in the field of science (awards, grants, etc.). It is better if the field of scientific research will fully or partially coincide with the topic of the submitted project.

Also, do not hesitate to write about all the awards and honors you have received in your scientific work, even if it is a small award given to employees of your organization. Any such information can create a positive expert opinion about the project participants and increase the expert assessment on the criterion of the possibility of completing the Project in an unchanged composition at the stated time and by the parameter describing the characteristics of the Project participants.

Form 3. Data on the institution providing conditions for the implementation of design work (Organization)

If your organization conducts research work and is registered with the Foundation, then a fully automatic filling is carried out when choosing an institution.

Form 4. Design content

Undoubtedly, this is the most important part of your application, because it is here that the description of the task, the relevance of the study, the analysis of the current stage of research, project tasks and goals, the novelty of the research from the point of view of science, the proposed methods and techniques, the expected results, their importance from the standpoint science and applied use, work plan, scientific groundwork, publications of the Project participants that are most closely related to it.

Before you start filling out these sections, think over in detail what your scientific idea is, what is needed to implement it, what methods will be used, what results they will allow to get, what each grant participant will do in each year of its implementation. After there are no "blank spots" left in your application for yourself, you can start writing the wording for entering data into the forms.

The main principle of filling out applications is clarity to the expert reader. Of course, the expert will be a specialist in the same discipline as the proposed project, but there is no guarantee that he is fluent in your specific topic. In addition, there is no certainty that the expert will carefully and thoughtfully read your application, with a desire to understand some non-obvious formulations. Therefore, try not to build complex sentences, while always methodically and consistently describe everything that you plan to do. Don't be afraid to repeat yourself! The expert will not evaluate the text rich in synonyms, and the repeated phrases on the subject of the project allow him to understand that it is still about the same subject. In addition, when writing the sections "relevance" and "novelty" you may repeat not just an idea, but even a number of sentences.

The section "Proposed approaches and methods, and their justification for the implementation of the goal and objectives of the research" requires a detailed description of the proposed research. This is the case when it is better to write everything thoroughly. As specified in the tender documentation, in this section “the presentation form should enable the expert to evaluate the novelty of the Project idea, the correspondence of the approaches and research methods to the set goals and objectives, and the reliability of the results obtained”. For example, if the work is experimental, describe in detail how and how many samples will be made, what test and research methods will be used, why each method is used. Check the goals and objectives of the research and adjust them if the proposed approaches and methods will not solve any problems. Be sure to reflect if some method is author's, or a new method will be developed during the course of the project.

Registration of application for participation

Having filled in all the fields, the Manager must sign the Application. To do this, you need to "send" the application to the KIAS and confirm your action by entering the code sent by SMS. After that, the registration number is assigned to the application automatically.

After signing, the only document sent to the Foundation is the Declaration, after signing it appears in your personal account immediately. The declaration must be signed by the Project Managers and the Organizations (in the latter case, as an alternative - a person with the necessary powers). The organization, in addition to the signature, puts a seal, the project manager certifies his signature by the responsible person of the organization or in a notarial form.

The declaration is required to be sent RFBR by regular letter to the address: Russia, 119334, Moscow, Leninsky Prospect, 32a. Alternatively, leave the letter in the RFBR mailbox, fixed in the 2nd entrance of the house with the same address (10: 00-17: 00, except weekends).

In addition to the required postage information, the envelope must contain the following phrase: "RFBR Competition", Project No., Contest code.

6. What do you pay attention to when performing a design expertise?

In fact, young specialists receive two reviews each with the following points filled in by experts:

- the fundamental nature of the research;

- the relevance of the designated topic of scientific research;

- the level of the available scientific groundwork and the characteristics of the participants in the work;

- correspondence of the level of study and expected project results to the international level;

- the degree of implementation of the proposed project;

- a qualitative presentation of the current stage of the problem;

- the novelty of the proposed research;

- correspondence of the proposed approaches and methods of planned research to the set design tasks and goals;

- expert review.

7. Results of the competition

RFBR supports a certain number of applications based on the funds available for this purpose; projects are supported based on the total number of points scored by the application for all evaluated positions. In this regard, sometimes projects are supported that received a low response from one of the reviewers, and sometimes projects that received both positive ratings are not supported. According to the Foundation, “the task of the expert council is to single out the“ best ”from the“ good ”in such a situation.

Project managers who have submitted applications are notified of project support (or, on the contrary, a refusal) by means of a notification in the KIAS Personal Account. Expert reviews will also be reflected there.

Also, the results of the competition (with a list of all supported applications) will be posted on the RFBR resource: //www.rfbr.ru/rffi/ru/classifieds (section “Announcements”).

If the Project was supported

You will be asked to sign a tripartite agreement (RFBR-Institution-Grant Recipient) in the near future (usually a month after the summing up).

Read all the terms of the contract, and also re-read the documentation for the competition. Mark for yourself the items required for execution. In the last competition, these were: the requirement of all participants of the Project to make reports reflecting the results of the project at scientific events; an obligation to send at least one article to a peer-reviewed publication in the first year of the project (in this case, the Project Manager must be one of the authors of at least one article), and before submitting the final project report, place at least one article with the results of the research in the journal located in the WoS information base or RSCI (similarly, for at least one article, one of the authors must be the project manager), and also place at least one article in co-authorship with the project manager in the peer-reviewed publication.

The team is obliged to provide annual reports. Thus, there will be two reports in total: interim and final. Both reports are assessed by RFBR experts.

If the Project is not supported

Do not despair! Carefully study the reviews of experts, work through their comments. You have a great chance to write a more meaningful application next time, where you will take into account all the mistakes and comments, and your chances of receiving the Fund's support in another year will significantly increase!

If you have any questions

You can always use the support service for users of the KIAS RFBR, having familiarized yourself with current issues: //support.rfbr.ru/?p=actual, frequently asked questions: //support.rfbr.ru/?p=faq or ask your question: / /support.rfbr.ru/?p=ask

The support service considers requests from 9:00 to 18:00 (Moscow time) on weekdays.

Conclusion

The editors adhere to the following position: those who do not submit applications cannot count on receiving projects. Therefore, if your project is a fundamental research, has novelty from the point of view of science, and the employees and the manager meet the competitive conditions, feel free to write an application for My first RFBR grant 2020! At best, you will receive financial and organizational support for your research, and at worst, expert reviews to help you improve your application for the next competition.

In addition, please note that with each announcement of a competition, the Foundation changes some of the conditions for receiving and implementing a grant. Each time carefully read the tender documentation on the RFBR official website. This article is based on the latest competition.