How science diplomacy matters to UK-Russia Relations

The UK-Russia Year of Science and Education – 2017 (YoSE) is already proving a useful bridge for people to people contacts at a time of challenging political relations. First, the Year’s programme reflects the breadth of science that Russia and the UK are involved in. But, we also aim to understand more general issues such as how scientific advice can contribute to high-level policy-making. It comes as no surprise therefore that one of the highlights so far was a May conference on science diplomacy, co-organised in Moscow by the Royal Society, the Russian Foundation for Basic Research(RFBR) and the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO).
The conference brought together a seven-strong delegation headed by Professor Martyn Poliakoff and a host of prominent Russian and international experts from leading research organizations, universities, ministries, advisory bodies and the local research community. Participants gave a comprehensive overview of science diplomacy and we had a number of excellent and frank discussions of the sort scientists can have, while still meeting for dinner and drinks afterwards! Important contributions included valuable examples of science diplomacy from the past (i.e. Pugwash Conferences), successful present initiatives and a look to the future. It was clear from our discussions that the UK and Russia sometimes have different understandings of scientific diplomacy; this is natural. Recognizing and seeking to understand these differences help us understand our wider differences, especially in how we see the world.
Historical perspective was a useful reminder that science diplomacy had been preached and practiced long before the term itself was coined. UK and Russian scientific communities have been talking to each other for years: people-to-people links have generated productive long-term networks across a wide range of research areas. These networks have evolved and expanded naturally, serving as channels of communication between our nations (science for diplomacy). Sometimes it took one perceptive and determined individual to spark bilateral scientific engagement. The first Briton in space, Dr. Helen Sharman, is certainly a case in point. In 1991, having learned to speak Russian, Helen flew to the Mir space station alongside two Russian cosmonauts – Sergei Krikalev and Anatoly Artsebarsky. Over the years Helen has maintained her Russian language abilities as wells as her links with Russian colleagues. Her personal commitment has been instrumental in bringing the two space communities closer and helped to galvanize partnerships: Russian cosmonauts are frequent guests in the UK, delivering lectures on space and getting involved in space-related projects. Now, of course, Tim Peake is contributing to this aspect of space science diplomacy.
While individuals matter, institutions likewise play an important role. National academies, funding bodies, universities and museums have proven crucial for improving cross-cultural understanding and enabling collaboration. In fact, there has been a long history of cooperation between the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society. In 1992 I spent time at Petersburg State University as part of such an exchange programme. Currently there is again support for bilateral scientific engagement across a range of topics, paving the way for a series of UK-Russia expert scientific workshops. In October 2016 the bilateral Paleontology workshop was hosted at the world-known Borissiak Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. The Borissiak Institute made UK headlines some two weeks after the workshop as Dr. Nikita Zelenkov’s scientific publication on the first discovery of a parrot bone in Siberia came out in the Royal Society Biology Letters journal. Later, in April 2017, the two academies ran the “100 Years of Black Holes” bilateral event in the UK, attended by Professor Professor Stephen Hawking. I am in no doubt that a long-time scale perspective helps with a difficult bilateral relationship – whatever our present political differences might be, UK and Russian scientists continue to find common ground discussing the million and billion year time-scales of palaeontology and cosmology!