The state in search of intellectual resources: The image of scientist in the perception of Russians

Under global challenges, the Russian state looks for ways to develop the national intellectual potential as a guarantee of technological sovereignty and country’s competitiveness. National research universities are supported, grant mechanisms for research activities are implemented, and programs for attracting and promoting young scientists are adopted. However, some objective indicators show persistent problems in the academic sphere: the number of research staff declines; “brain drain” continues; the number of graduate students and people who defended the thesis is not enough to solve the key problems of the state. The article considers social representations of the prestige of the scientific profession and the image of the scientist as factors that have a negative impact on human resources in the academic field. The research consisted of two stages: 1) 21 focus groups in 7 large Russian cities to identify the prestige of the scientific profession among three generations; 2) 207 interviews with students of Moscow universities (as the main source of personnel for scientific activities) to get a more detailed understanding of the image of the scientist. According to the results of the study, none of three Russian generations consider the profession of the scientist prestigious (inferior to politicians, businessmen, artists, bloggers, and IT specialists). The youth feel social injustice more acutely: they note the exceptional importance of scientists for national development, outstanding intelligence and complexity of this profession, but consider scientists an undervalued and low-income group. The image of the scientist is extremely distanced from the youth and is not an attractive vector of social mobility. One of the key reasons for the current situation is the absence of scientists in the Russian information space. Neither on television, nor in cinema or on social networks the image of the scientist is attractive to younger generations. If efforts are not made to eliminate this contradiction, the shortage of personnel in science will worsen, which would jeopardize the implementation of Russia’s national development plan.