Samara Oblast’s Research and Development Potential

Research and Development Organizations

R&D organizations total: 59, incl.

• Special R&D institutions – 71 %
• Research departments of universities – 17%
• R&D departments of firms – 12%

Research workers total: about 25.400 people, incl.

• Employed in engineering research sector – 91%
• University graduates (specialists) – 45%
• Candidates of Sciences – 4.5 % (of whom 55% work in engineering sciences)
• Doctors of Sciences – 1.3% (of whom 48% work in engineering sciences)
• Newly graduated specialists – 13.4%
• Newly employed from other organizations – 6.7%

R&D projects implementation by sectors and objectives:

• Business organizations (engineering research and development) – 95%
• Governmental academies and research institutions (basic research) – 3%
• Higher educational institutions (applied research) – 2%

Total value of R&D projects: 6.000, million rubles, incl.

Projects realized by industrial businesses and engineering organizations – 86% (5.200, million rubles), of which

• R&D projects – 82%
• Engineering research and other services – 18%

Sources of financing R&D projects:

• Funds of firms – 45.6%
• Federal budget funds – 34.9%
• Off-budget funds – 6.8%
• Foreign investments – 5.4%

Research Workers Training at Graduate School

Number of graduate departments: 18, incl.

14 at universities and 4 at research institutes.

Total number of post-graduate students (as of 31 December 2001): 1891 people, recent years witnessing a rising trend in the number of post-graduate students, i.e. a 13.3% rise, in comparison with the year 2000, and a twofold rise, if compared with the year 1996, incl.

• Full-time graduate students – 69% (a 11.9% rise from the year 2000)
• Graduate students at the age of up to 26 – 78% (a 18% rise from the year 2000)
• Women students – 39%
• Students upholding a thesis for the Candidate’s degree immediately after completing graduate courses – 30-40%

Enrolment in graduate departments in 2001: 693 specialists,
incl. enrolment on graduate courses in

• Engineering– 31.6%
• Economics – 21.2%
• The humanities, medicine, law and pedagogy – 3.3 – 7.4%

Number of doctorate departments: 9

Number of students for Doctor’s degree – 62, incl.

• At the age of up to 39 – 41.9%
• At the age of up to 59 – 9.7%
• Women students – 30%

Total enrolment of the biggest graduate schools:

• Samara Academy of Economics- 270 students
• Samara University – 250 students
• Samara Technical University – 247 students

Development and Application of New Technologies

In recent years Samara’s industry has undergone a period of expansion in the application of digital electronics, programmable logic controllers, automated monitoring and control, computer-aided design, engineering and manufacturing methods, laser treatment methods, robots, laser instruments, data systems and local data processing networks. The year 2001 has brought about a number of new microelectronic techniques and computer-aided technologies developed in Samara.

Number of newly developed technologies: 57, incl.

• Processing, manufacturing and assembling methods – 49.1%
• Design and engineering methods – 22.8%
• Other – 28.1%
• No domestic analogs – 98%
• No foreign analogs – 2%
• Patented or utility certified – approx. 50%

Breakdown by R&D organizations:

• R&D departments of universities – 37,
• Special R&D organizations – 10,
• R&D departments of firms – 10.

The leading position in the development of new technologies belongs to Samara Aerospace University, other leaders are OAO AvtoVAZ, R&D Centre Infotrans, OAO Motorostroitel, OAO Aviaagregat, CSKB, OAO SKMB, Samara Academy of Architecture and Construction.

Number of organizations introducing new engineering technologies in 2001: 79, incl.

• Industrial firms – 75%
• Basic research organizations – 16%
• Universities – 9%

Leaders in industrial application of innovative technologies are AO AvtoVAZ, Kuznetsov Engineering Research Centre, OAO Samaraenergo, OAO Samaraneftegas, Samara Bearing Factory, Novokuibyshevsk Oil Refinery, Rossia Confectioners’ Association.

Innovation Activity

The year 2001 investment in innovation and modernization by industries:

• Machine-building and metal-working – 39%
• Power industry– 12%
• Food industry – 17%
• Other – 32%

Innovation investment breakdown by kind:

• New machinery and equipment – 62.4%
• Research and development – 19.1%

Total innovation costs in 2001: 8.500, million rubles, of which

• Covered with funds of firms – 98.7%

R&D departments of firms developing innovation projects in 2001:

• Total number - 81
• Total personnel - 4041 people (most working in motor-car industry)

Cooperative innovation projects in 2001:

• Total number – 199
• Domestic cooperation – 189
• International cooperation – 10
• Total number of Samara’s organizations involved in cooperative projects – 34

Innovation products and services in 2001:

• Percentage of total industrial product – 25.5% (equals 40.700, million rubles)
• Percentage of total services sold – 2.8%
• Novelty rate – 23.5%

Disincentives to innovation activity: Due to high cost of innovation, insufficient funds to cover innovation expenditure and lack of governmental support of innovation activity, it has been slowed down by 28 firms, discontinued by 17 firms and has not even been started by 13 ones.

Fundamental Research

A leading position in fundamental research activities belongs to the Samara Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which is a setter of priorities in the development of science and technology in Samara Oblast.

Samara Centre of RAS comprises six research institutes and two sections:

- Samara affiliate of Lebedev Institute of Physics (Samara),

- Institute for Complex Systems Management Problems (Samara),

- Institute for Image Processing Systems (Samara),

- Volga affiliate of Baikov Institute of Metallurgy and Science of Materials (Samara),

- Institute for Ecology of the Volga Basin (Togliatti),

- Ulyanovsk department of the Institute of Electronics and Radio Engineering (Ulyanovsk),

- Samara section of the RAS Council for Traffic and Navigation Management Problems (Samara),

- Volga department of RAS Section for Applied Problems (Samara).

Samara Centre of RAS also provides guidance to:

- Institute for Machines Acoustics (Samara),

- Institute for Quality Problems and Technologies (Samara)

- Engineering Research Centre for Automated Strength Testing and Machines Diagnostics (Samara).

Total staff of Samara Centre of RAS is 600 people, of which 250 are research workers. Scientific researches are carried out by RAS academician V.P. Shorin and seven RAS associates G.P. Anshakov, V.A. Barvinok, V.A. Grachev, A.G. Zibarev, D.I. Kozlov, G.S. Rozenberg and V.A. Soifer and also 50 doctors and 120 candidates of sciences.

Samara Centre of RAS is headed by the Presidium, of which the chairman is Vladimir Pavlovich Shorin. Subordinated to the Presidium are:

- Centre for high-performance data processing,

- Section for history and archaeology of the Volga region,

- Section for transport problems,

- Publishing department,

- Scientific library and Internet centre,

- The editors of the journal Izvestiya Samarskogo Nauchnogo Tsentra Rossiyskoy Akademii Nauk (‘Proceedings of the Samara Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences’).

Main Objectives of Samara Centre of RAS in 2001:

Presidium of Samara Centre of RAS: RAS Centre’s research activities coordination, editorial and publishing activities, and provision of information and library services, high-performance computer services and access to foreign supercomputers, technical support to the Committee on Samara Oblast awards and grants to research workers and engineers, and also formation and development of information infrastructure of regional science and education.

Samara affiliate of Lebedev Institute of Physics: A new generation of chemically or electrically excited lasers,laser processing and material synthesis technologies, analysis and synthesis of light fields for laser diagnostics, engineering, biological medicine and ecology.

Institute for Ecology of the Volga Basin: Research on the Volga river’s highly industrialized basin described as a single ecological system, land and water ecosystems monitoring,rational nature management methods validation, theoretical grounding of preservation and extended reproduction ofhydrobionts, basic research in stimulation of fish production.

Institute for Complex Systems Management Problems: Complex objects and control systems modeling problems, theory and technology of measuring control object parameters under extremal conditions.

Institute for Image Processing Systems: Fundamental research on computer synthesis of diffractional light elements, mathematical simulation of wave field space-time parameters control processes, and also mathematical methods, information technologies and automated systems for signal processing and image analysis and identification.

Ulyanovsk department of the Institute of Electronics and Radio Engineering: Fibre optics technologies and optic data processing methods and also wave processes in solids.

Volga affiliate of Baikov Institute of Metallurgy and Science of Materials: Physics and mechanics of material properties control and deformation stimulation.

Samara Engineering Research Centre for Automated Strength Testing and Machines Diagnostics: Air-engines strength and reliability testing methods and instruments, turbo-units structural strength testing, engineering inheritance effect on dynamic strength of machine parts, holographic techniques of turbo-units dynamics and strength testing.

Institute for Machines Acoustics: Liquid and gas systems dynamic properties control methods, improvement of vibroacoustic characteristics of machines and equipment, acoustic load testing and control methods for regulation purposes, laser equipment and technologies development.

Institute for Quality Problems and Technologies: Physics and mathematical simulation of thermal and deformational processes in variable geometry solids, basic research on plasma oscillators, homogeneous and composite materials forming and pressure-assembling technologies and equipment, basic and applied problems of certification of machine-building processes, technologies and products.

Funding of Samara Centre of RAS in 2001: 37,6 million rubles, incl. basic funds of 17,7 million rubles (or 47%).

The Centre for high-performance data processing operates a cluster of computers integrated into a high-performance network which has recently been modernized and extended, and connected withthe computer network of the RAS Institute for Image Processing Systems to form an integrated sharing centre with 20 processors. This enables a peak performance of 13.500, million operations per second.

One of the current tasks of RAS Centre is the development of Samara’s telecommunication network that is to enable the integration of local networks of research institutions and universities. More than 10 km of fibre optic communication lines laid and new equipment installed in the basic network in 2001 make it possible to integrate into it the local computer networks of the Volga section of the Russian Academy of Engineering, Samara Technical University and Samara Medical University.

Samara Centre of RAS has also been the leading partner in the Research University of High Technologies project implemented in cooperation with the Samara affiliate of Lebedev Institute of Physics, the Institute for Image Processing Systems, the Institute for Machines Acoustics, Samara University and Samara Aerospace University. The implementation of the project in 2001 includes cooperative fundamental researches in high-end technologies, graduates training courses, information and publication infrastructure development, integrated computer network development and monographs and manuals publication.

Samara Oblast’s Science and Technology Awards have been given to 42 authors for the following 12 works:

Physics and Mathematics

- Spiral light beams as a new course of coherent optics (presented by V.G. Volostnikov and Ye. G. Abramochkin, Samara affiliate of Lebedev Institute of Physics);

- Complex methodology of multi-component system analysis as the basis of modern science of materials and its applications (presented by A. S. Trunin, Doctor of Sciences, Samara Technical University).

Engineering Sciences

- Radiant gas heater GOL-40 (presented by G.I. Ishutin, I.B. Bystrov, V.N. Lavrov, V.N. Borodin, V.V. Yefimov and S.N. Korenkov, OAO SNTK im. N.D. Kuznetsova and OAO Motorostroitel);

- Development, production and application of active control systems for the automation of finishing machining operations under VAZ 2 PO project (presented by A.G. Reshetov, Ye. M. Baboshin, S.D. Novikov, Yu. G. Karnaukhov, V.V. Zdobnov and V.D. Shelemetyev, Togliatti Polytechnic Institute);

- Development and regional applications of technologies based on combined sources of high concentration energy flux (presented by V.A. Barvinok, V.I. Bogdanovich, D.M. Gureyev, V.I. Mordasov, A.L. Petrov and V.S. Samokhvalov, Samara affiliate of Lebedev Institute of Physics).

Social Sciences

- Scientists of the Volga Region in the years of the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945 and Scientists of Kuibyshev Oblast in the years of the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945 (monographs presented by G.A. Shirokov, Samara University);

- Russian provincial society and government: The year 1917 in the Volga region (a monograph presented by N.N. Kabytova, Samara University);

- Samara Oblast’s economy at the turn of the century (a monography presented by A.P. Zhabin, A.G. Abrosimov, V.P. Gordeyev, N.D. Gurinovich, R.P. Kudryashova, Yu. V. Matveyev, Samara Academy of Economics).

Medicine and Biology

- Gravitation therapy application for curing traumatic after-effects in Samara Oblast (presented by A.V. Yashkov, A.N. Makhova and M.G. Kotelnikov, Samara medical University;

- Samarskaya Luka Bulletin Nos 1-10, 1991-1999 (presented by Yu.P. Krasnobayev, S.A. Sachkov and S.V. Saksonov, the Zhiguli Nature Reserve);

- STAS dental implants creation and introduction in clinical practice (presented by I.M. Fedyaev, I.M> Bayrikov, A.I. Bogatov, V.P. Tlustenko, YE.A. Iszheurov and A.V. Revyakin, Samara Medical University and Samara Aerospace University).