More than 2,700 research proposals from various regions were submitted for the competitions this year. The quality of each proposal was evaluated by 3 – 5 external referees based on scientific merit.
Most of the successful proposals appeared to be in physics, chemistry and engineering dealing with research tasks related to the digital technologies, personalized medicine and resource-saving energy in terms of the priorities listed in the Strategy of scientific and technological development of Russia.
The main goal of this funding program is to offer a long-term funding prospective for leading scientists and early-career researchers in Russia so that they can build their own independent research teams and pursue their best ideas at the frontiers of knowledge.
Russian Science Foundation has also finalized the review procedures for the interim scientific reports submitted by the young scientists who had received grants under that funding scheme in 2017 and 2018. Based on the assessment of grant reports, 8 projects were terminated (in 2018 – 5) due to the failure of the respective project investigators to fulfill their obligations with regards to their scientific plans and publications of the research results, 16 project investigators received so called “early warnings” from the RSF Expert Council.