Russian Science Loses Western Funding Due To Ukraine War

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Germany's Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry froze the funding used to pay personnel at the Northeast Science Station on the Kolyma River in Siberia and to maintain instruments that measure how quickly climate change is thawing Arctic permafrost and how much methane - a potent planet-warming gas - is being released.

Photo Insert: Germany's Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry froze the funding used to pay personnel at the Northeast Science Station on the Kolyma River in Siberia.

The funding freeze will probably lead to an interruption of the continuous measurements at the station dating back to 2013, compromising scientists' understanding of the warming trend, said Peter Hergersberg of the Max Planck Society, which is funded by the German state, Gloria Dickie and Dasha Afanasieva reported for Reuters.

In 2019, Russia spent 1% of its GDP on research and development — or about $39 billion, adjusted for currency and price variation — according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Most of that money has been spent in physical science fields, such as space technology and nuclear energy.

By comparison, Germany, Japan, and the US each spend around 3% of their respective GDPs. For the US, that amounted to $612 billion in 2019.

The projects affected by the suspension of Western assistance include the construction of high-tech research facilities in Russia, such as an ion collider and a neutron reactor for which Europe had pledged 25 million euros ($27.4 million).

Such technology would unlock a generation of research that could contribute to everything from fundamental physics to the development of new materials, fuels, and pharmaceuticals, scientists said.

Another 15 million-euro ($16.7 million) contribution toward designing low-carbon materials and battery technologies needed in the energy transition to combat climate change has also been frozen after the European Union (EU) halted all cooperation with Russian entities last month.

"Emotionally, I can understand this suspension," said Dmitry Shchepashchenko, a Russian environmental scientist who studies global forest cover and has been affiliated with the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria since 2007.

But for science overall, he said: "This is a lose-lose solution. Global issues like climate change and biodiversity ... can hardly be solved without Russian territory [and] the expertise of Russian scientists."

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