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Japan builds ivory towers Russian foundation challenges power among its windswept hills of the Academy

Kansai Science City. 's second major Facing ATR is the Keihanna Plaza, Moscow. Vladimir Fortov, the new director science city, after Tsukuba science city north opened last March, which acts as a central of the Russian Foundation of Basic Re­ of Tokyo, is beginning to take shape in the service complex. The world's largest sun­ search (RFBR) who took over the helm in Keihanna hills between , and dial graces a square in front of the complex. June, is trying to persuade the Russian gov­ , about 200 miles west of the nation's And last week, Matsushita Electrical Indus­ ernment to double the foundation's budget. capital. trial Company opened its research institute F ortov says he is confident that the Until recently Kansai science city, in in the same district. It will have a total staff foundation, set up in April 1992 along the which local and central governments and of about 300 when it reaches full operation. lines of a Western science funding agency, private industry plan to invest ¥4-5 billion When complete, the city will be com­ can use funds far more effectively than the (US$37--47 million) over the next few dec­ posed of 12 such districts or 'clusters', sepa­ Russian Academy of Science. He says that ades, was nothing more than a university, a rated by wooded hills. Each district is quite this is primarily because much of the money couple of colleges and a handful of institutes small. The Seika-Nishi Kizu district accom­ channelled to the academy is spent on widely scattered in the Keihanna hills. modating the Keihanna Plaza and the new administration; the RFBR limits overheads This year, however, has seen the opening institutes is one of the largest, yet still covers to 20 per cent of its budget. of a central service complex and four new only 500 hectares. Under Fortov's leadership, new regula­ institutes - three in the past few weeks The 12 clusters will be linked by a com­ tions were approved last month which alone - in a small district intended to be the puter network centred on the Keihanna Plaza. considerably reduce the influence of the heart of the new city. And planners hope eventually to link all the foundation's council on decisions by its On 10 November, the central research clusters with a grid system of roads. expert panels on the allocation of research laboratory of the Research Institute ofInno­ At present, however, it is quite difficult funds. Previously the council had been criti­ vative Technology for the Earth (RITE) to travel between and even within districts. cized for allocating a high proportion of began operations in a futuristic building This aspect of Kansai is reminiscent of grants to its own praesidium members. powered in part by solar cells. The organiza­ Tsukuba which, after 20 years of develop­ The structure of the RFBR is also to tion is being funded generously by both ment, still lacks a railway station. change. In particular, an executive commit­ private companies and the Ministry ofInter­ The Keihanna Plaza, which has a concert tee is being set up to carry out some of the national Trade and Industry to develop en­ hall, a hotel, a general store, a travel agency, functions of the council between its meet­ vironment-friendly technology. a bank, a post office and a noodle restaurant ings. And a growth in the number of advis­ The RITE laboratory has 35 researchers, that is transformed into a bar at night, is an ers means that each grant proposal is now and that number will double over the next attempt to make researchers feel more at reviewed by two experts rather than one. five to 10 years. The central building has a home. The foundation's work has been devel­ slanting roof covered in solar cells. On But there is still the impression of being oping rapidly since Fortov replaced Andrei either side extend two long single-storey in the middle of windswept hills far from Gonchar, the vice president of the Russian wings with large bay windows looking out civilization. And many of the city's current Academy of Science, last summer. This onto a moat-like pond and a huge land­ 6,000 researchers have chosen to live in followed a power struggle in which Gonchar scaped garden. Kyoto, Nara vr Osaka, 10-30 km away. was told that he could not continue to hold Next door is the International Institute of There are new housing estates adjacent both positions (see Nature 363, 662; 1993). Advanced Studies (lIAS), the 'brain centre' to the research districts. But house prices Despite the general lack of money in of the city, which opened last month and is were driven to astronomical levels of more Russia, the foundation has been successful modelled on the Princeton Institute of Ad­ than ¥I 00 million yen ($1 million) during in obtaining from the government most of vanced Studies in the United States (see the 'bubble economy' at the end of the the money it had been promised. This year it Nature 365, 482; 1993). 1980s. Prices have since fallen. But they are expects to receive about 20 billion rubles Five hundred metres away is the tower­ still beyond the pocket of most researchers. (US$18 million). ing Advanced Telecommunications Re­ It is therefore hard to see how the city Nevertheless some problems still exist. search Institute International (ATR), which will be develop into the "organic whole" For example, most of the foundation's was the first institute to open in the city in that its developers have promised. Rather, research projects have been planned to last 1989. It is funded with the dividends of there is a danger that the lavishly funded for three years. This means that about 80 per government-held shares in Nippon Tel­ institutes will become ivory towers in pleas­ cent of the programmes now being funded egraph and Telephone Corporation. ant surroundings. David Swinbanks will need funding for the next year -- and that next year's competition for funds could end up providing support for only 600 out China urged to treat young scientists better of an expected 15,000 applications. The foundation has therefore increased Peking. A nationwide survey of China's the question of whether the scientists felt the portion of its budget allocated to re­ leading young scientists has found that the they were attaining their full potential. Over search grants from 60 to 75 per cent. This majority are concerned about low pay, dif­ two-thirds of the scientists agreed that their should be sufficient to guarantee funding of ficult working relationships and poor living institutions cared about their work. But three 2,200 new projects. conditions. quarters said that they had bad experiences If the budget of the RFBR were to be The survey was carried out by the China of interpersonal relationships, quoting jeal­ doubled, its financial power would equal Association of Science and Technology, ousy, in-tighting and professional rivalry. that ofthe academy, which receives between which interviewed 291 winners ofthe "China As a result of the survey, the association 10 and I I per cent of the state annual budget Young Scientist A ward" working in re­ has suggested that research institutions in­ for science. The academy is therefore likely search laboratories and universities. troduce a "more benign attitude" towards to oppose any such action. The numbers were evenly balanced on young scientists. You Qin Li Vladimir Pokrovsky 292 NATURE . VOL 366 . 25 NOVEMBER 1993 © 1993 Nature Publishing Group