The “post doc” support program is aimed at supporting young researchers under the age of 33 who have got their PhD, regardless of their academic position and citizenship. The size of one grant ranges from 1,5 to 2 million rubles annually for the duration of two years. According to the rules of the program, the amount of the grant in case of researcher’s relocation to another region increases from 1.5 to 2 million rubles.
The program for youth research groups supports a new generation of research leaders. The funding is allocated for young candidates and doctors of sciences in the age of up to 35 years. The size of one grant ranges from 3 to 6 million rubles annually for the duration of three years. The implementation of the project should be aimed at developing the career of young scientists, expanding the horizons of planning their research work, forming new research teams that will be able to become the basis of new research departments and laboratories in the future.
“As in the previous years, the level of interest of young researchers in these funding programs remains high”, says RSF Deputy Director General Andrey Blinov. “In total, 3 thousand applications were submitted for these specific programs in 2024. All of them were evaluated by external reviewers. On average, every fourth to fifth application was recommended for funding by the Expert Council. In total, 641 youth projects will be funded. The projects supported by the Foundation will be implemented by teams of young scientists in more than 230 organizations from 50 Russian regions, including the Zaporizhia region and the Donetsk People's Republic.”
The RSF places particular emphasis on increasing the share of female scientists in RSF programs. Solutions are continuously being developed and schemes adapted with this in mind. In 2024, 42% of all RSF awards for early-career researchers go to female project investigators.
The RSF Expert Council also finalized review of interim scientific reports submitted by the current grant recipients. It was recommended to continue funding for 1,159 active projects in the amounts requested by applicants, which is more than 4.9 billion rubles for the next financial year. The results of the implementation of 8 projects were considered unsuccessful by the Expert Council.
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The Presidential research funding program was introduced by the Russian Science Foundation in 2017 on behalf of the Russian President Vladimir Putin. Its main tasks are to provide a long-term support for the projects of leading researchers at their early career stage and to create career paths for promising young researchers so that they can build their own independent research teams and pursue their best ideas at the frontiers of knowledge. An attractive childcare support introduced for grant recipients and the flexibly designed mobility bonus also contribute to better working conditions for young researchers. During the implementation of the program, since 2017 the RSF has funded some 7 000 such projects as Russia holds onto its globally leading position as a centre for research. In the recent call this program attracted applications from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, India, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Mexico, Tajikistan, South Korea, Uzbekistan and other countries.
