Modern Challenges to the Research System and Ways to Overcome Them

Abstract

An analysis of sociological surveys of researchers, conducted by Wellcome Trust, the ideas on which the initiatives of the U.S. President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology are based, and R&D performance in Ukraine shows that the challenges to the modern research system (total commercialization, bureaucratization, loss of academic freedoms, inadequate staffing, the problem of public understanding of science, the threat of losing perceptions of the scientific truth as a universal value, etc.) have acquired the global scales.

These challenges can be overcome though institutional integration of theoretical (basic) and applied research in targeted research programs, which idea belongs to academician B.Ye. Paton.

It is substantiated that the directive form of management, characteristic of the disciplinary organization of research, in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research should be supplemented by network forms of organization and management of moderative type. Issues of research staffing have become critically important. Commercialization of the research system gave birth to the phenomenon of temporary jobs or freelance in research, along with uncertainties in the employment stability. Examples of addressing these problems in the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine are given, and it is concluded that the public through its power bodies should stimulate the creation of comfortable working conditions for researchers, especially the younger generation.

Because solutions for problems faced by the modern research system largely depend on its public perception, it is necessary to intensify all forms of communications between research community and society. The leading role in it should belong to researchers, their ability to provide comprehensible and convincing information about scientific achievements and their sociocultural significance.

The creation of a specialized administrative department for research management, the Ministry of Science of Ukraine, will help successfully overcome the challenges faced by the Ukrainian research system and develop theoretical and applied research in keeping with the best world standards. This Ministry’s functions should be assigned to the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, which has extensive experiences in the successful leadership of research.