UK – Russia Year of Science and Education: the beginning of a beautiful relationship?

At the end of the classic film Casablanca, Rick says to the Chief of Police “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship”. So, as we embark upon a year of UK – Russia Science and (science) Education events, what do we expect our scientific relationship to look like 12 months from now? There are some crucial points to bear in mind.

Firstly, it will be about dialogue. That doesn’t mean we will always agree. In fact, if we do, that would be a failure. Scientists need to argue, but through that process they make progress – and anyway they generally make up and reach consensus.

Secondly, we should embrace the unexpected outcome. Russia and the UK have very different education systems, which gives rise to different thinking and the ability to consider problems from different angles: But isn’t that exactly what we want?  Real scientific progress happens when problems, the big problems, are addressed using a combination of different approaches. If we always look at issues from the same perspective we are unlikely to achieve the best results – there is a growing appreciation that scientific co-operation across borders is more productive than co-operation within.

Courtesy of Aleksei Zotov (British Council)

Thirdly, we will need to make a bit of a splash, a bit of a noise, to grab people’s imaginations. Well we’ve started in the best possible way. The first external mention of the UK-Russia Year of Science and Education was during the unveiling, at the London Science Museum, of British Astronaut Tim Peake’s Russian re-entry module – a great event that also demonstrated the increasingly close relationship between our space agencies and museums. The next day we officially launched the Year of Science and Education in Moscow at the TASS news agency. British Council are leading the UK contribution and their Chief Executive, Sir Ciarán Devane spoke at the launch. Following remarks by Russia’s Deputy Minister for Education and Science, Ludmila Ogorodova, I added my bit and importantly delivered a message of good will from the Foreign Secretary who said that “when the UK followed British Astronaut Tim Peake’s journey into space on board a Russian-made spacecraft, alongside his Russian cosmonaut colleagues” it was “a reminder of what can be achieved by working together.”

Courtesy of Aleksei Zotov (British Council)

Finally, it must be about young people. We will have a number of events aimed at developing links between the next generations of Russian and British scientists. That doesn’t mean we ignore all the great achievements of previous collaborations. Of course, ‘celebrations of excellence’ are part of the way we encourage activity, including that by younger people. There will be a number of events where we look back. For example, at an event looking back at Mendeleev’s 19^th century work on what he termed the Periodic System, later expanded into the Periodic Table, we shall also celebrate last year’s brand new additions to the Periodic Table.

We do not yet know just how many events there will be during the year. Last year’s Year of Language and Culture had just about 100, so we ought to try to beat that! And, before you say that it’s about quality not quantity – agreed – it’s always nice to aim for both! Certainly we have great supporters for events: The Royal Society and the Royal Society of Chemistry are already planning activities, as is the Natural History Museum.

There are always lots of stories about how we came to where we are in science, which almost always come down to person-to-person relationships. So, as we embark upon the UK-Russia Year of Science and Education, clearly this is not so much the beginning of a relationship but another opportunity to remind ourselves of the great things we have done, are doing and shall do. And will it be beautiful? Well beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so let’s re-visit it in a year.