International
News from the Moscow Office:
Sarov Research Centre Intends to Build High-Performance Laser Facility
The Russian government plans to invest up to 45 billion rouble (approximately 1.1 billion Euro) in a new large-scale laser facility, which is to be built in the vicinity of the technology park "Sarov" over the course of the next ten years. The performance capacity is to achieve 2.8 megajoule. The facility will be built outside the restricted research centre VNIIEF Sarov to allow also international researchers to work at the site without greater impediments.
The research centre VNIIEF Sarov was established after the Second World War in an area surrounded by forests in the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast with the objective of developing nuclear weapons. The research centre operates under the auspices of the Rosatom Nuclear Energy State Corporation and conducts also active development of civil areas of research, for example, supercomputing. VNIIEF Sarov therefore has available supercomputers with a performance capacity of up to 1 petaflop. On an international level, VNIIEF cooperates, for example, with the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research and with CERN.
Further Information:
Third Round in Russian "Megagrants" Programme Under Preparation
The Russian Ministry of Education and Science plans to award further million rouble grants to outstanding international scientists, who intend to establish and head new research laboratories in Russia. Arrangements are made to the effect, that for the third application round, applications for funding can be submitted both via Russian universities and by way of institutes associated within the Russian Academy of Sciences. The funding for a laboratory amounts to 90 million rouble (approximately 2.2 million Euro) over a period of three years. Again, up to 40 awardees are to be selected. The already existing laboratories originating from the application rounds in 2010 and 2011 are likewise entitled to a continuation of their funding. The 2014/2015 budget allocates up to 300,000 Euro for this purpose. The awardees from earlier application rounds include several Helmholtz researchers, for instance, from the Helmholtz centres KIT, DLR, IPP or AWI.
The third call for applications is to be published in June 2012 here.
Russian Foundation for Basic Research Established 20 Years Ago
On 27 April 1992, the then President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, supported the initiative by the country's leading scientists and effected the foundation's establishment. The Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) is the largest Russian governmental sponsor of basic research and in 2012 commands a budget of approximately 6 billion rouble (approximately 150 million Euro). The RFBR cooperates with partners in Germany (Helmholtz Association, German Research Foundation), Sweden, the United Kingdom, France, Poland, the Czech Republic, Japan and the United States. The Helmholtz Association cooperates with the foundation already since 2006 in the context of the "Helmholtz-Russia Joint Research Groups" programme. At present, the joint call for applications HRJRG with focus on "Research with photons, neutrons and ions" still accepts submissions until 31 May 2012.
