Scientific research institute at the university in the USSR: institutional advantages and disadvantages (as examplified by the Gorky Physico-Technikal Research Institute at N.I. Lobachevsky Gorky State University)


The Soviet science system consisted of three subsystems: the academic science (within the USSR Academy of Sciences), the industrial science, and the system of higher education establishments. Within some higher education establishments, there were scientific research institutes (SRI, or NII in Russian) whose position was borderline. On the one hand, these institutes were the universities’ divisions and thus participated in teaching students. On the other hand, they were engaged in the extensive interactions with the institutes of the USSR Academy of Sciences and industrial enterprises. To identify the advantages and disadvantages of the institutional position of NII at the universities within the Soviet science system, the paper analyses the history of the Gorky Physico-Technical Research Institute at N. I. Lobachevsky Gorky State University. It is concluded that the university’s NII may be seen as an “exchange zone” where scientists tackling different scientific and technological problems interact with each other, which allows new research ields to develop at the institute. Occupying a borderline position between all science subsystems, the university’s NII may participate in the “exchange” both with industrial enterprises and the institutes of the USSR Academy of Sciences, develop distributed exchange zones, and take part in the development of new research ields and new industrial sectors. In this case, the borderline position of the university’s NII is an advantage. However, such NITs institutional uncertainty acted as an obstacle for a wide implementation of such NITs developments in the well-established industrial sectors.

 
 

Recommended bibliographic description

, Scientific research institute at the university in the USSR: institutional advantages and disadvantages (as examplified by the Gorky Physico-Technikal Research Institute at N.I. Lobachevsky Gorky State University), Voprosy Istorii Estestvoznaniia i Tekhniki [Studies in History of Science and Technology], , p.  159-178

     
    © Studies in the History of Science and Technology: Quarterly scientific journal of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2015)
    ISSN 0205-9606. Индекс 70143