The funds of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (“RFBR”) are formed out of:
– State-appropriated funds making up to 6% of all funds allocated for science and scientific research in the budget of the Russian Federation;
– Voluntary contributions by companies, enterprises, institutions, organizations and civilians, including foreign legal entities and individuals.
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Fig. 3 presents data on the funding of RFBR from the state budget since 1993. |
The funds of the Foundation are used for the following:
(a) funding of research projects and other events selected on the basis of competitions conducted by the Foundation;
(b) acquisition and distribution of scientific information for the purposes of providing support to basic research;
(c) personnel expenses, development of the material-and-technical and information base of the Foundation, the conduct of expert merit reviews.
The distribution of the allocated funds among different activities carried out by RFBR is approved annually by the Board of the Foundation. A major portion of the funds of the Foundation (over 70%) is directed to provide funding to research projects submitted on the initiative of scientists and conducted by small research teams (up to 10 members) or by individual scientists (a planned distribution of budgetary funds in RFBR for 2008 is shown in Fig. 4). Each project submitted on the initiative of an independent scientist may not be funded for over three years.
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Fig. 4. Planned Distribution of Funding by Type of Activity as at 2007 |
Monetary funds are distributed among knowledge areas in accordance with the number of applications (research proposals) received under a competition to fund initiative-based research projects. For the planned distribution of funds by area of knowledge in 2008, see Fig. 5
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Fig. 5. Distribution of Funds by Knowledge Area under the Initiative-Based Research Projects and Other RFBR Competitions for 2008 |
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