In the summer of 2022, the world’s first ice-resistant platform known as The North Pole began active operations. This self-propelled installation serves as a transport hub, a living habitat, and a research center rolled into one. It houses 15 laboratories and a dedicated server system to archive the data collected during missions. Hull-integrated sensors continuously monitor ice conditions, while polar explorers deploy drones, meteorological buoys, and guided underwater vehicles to study the surrounding environment. Observations extend across a radius of several tens of kilometers, offering a broad scientific view of Arctic conditions.
Currently, the platform participates in the North Pole-41 expedition, now in its third month of field work.
On September 20, 2022, the Russian Academy of Sciences elected a new president. Academician Gennady Krasnikov, who leads the Molecular Electronics Research Institute, will guide the academy for the next five years. The election followed a shift in rules, moving to a majority vote rather than a two-thirds threshold. Shortly before the vote, former president Alexander Sergeev withdrew his candidacy, describing the move as forced.
Krasnikov announced plans to audit scientific institutions and leadership effectiveness to pursue new approaches. During a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, he outlined a vision centered on end-to-end projects that support a complete innovation cycle and enable effective collaboration among national and international scientific bodies and high-tech companies.
3. The world’s first cloned lamb carrying wild genes
Researchers from the Federal Center for Livestock Research, named after academician LK Ernst, cloned a hybrid lamb whose dam is a prolific Romanov and whose sire is a wild Pamir argali. The lamb, named Konguru after the highest peak in the Pamirs, is six months old. The scientists aimed to merge the Romanov’s high fecundity with the rugged genotype of the argali, using gene editing to disable a muscle-formation gene. This work marks the world’s first cloned hybrid lamb created from wild genes.
4. The National Center for Physics and Mathematics established in 2022
With support from Rosatom, a new Physics and Mathematics Center opened at the close of 2022. Alexander Sergeev, a physicist and member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, serves as its supervisor. The center focuses on ambitious tasks such as extracting matter and antimatter from the vacuum, creating collider facilities to detect dark matter signals, and exploring lab-scale phenomena like lightning, sonolumescence, and gas hydrates. Mathematicians will work on a photonic computer and advanced artificial intelligence that mimics human cognition.
The plan includes building three mega science facilities, establishing a science institute with about 2,000 staff, and developing an academic campus housing roughly 10,000 people by 2030.
5. The first electron beams achieved in the SKIF linear accelerator
The Siberian Ringed Photon Source, SKIF, faced a one-year delay due to logistical complexity, yet the first electron beams were produced in the Institute’s laboratory at the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Construction continues at the Koltsovo science city near Novosibirsk, where the accelerator will be installed. SKIF ranks among Russia’s largest recent research infrastructure projects, with funding totaling 37.1 billion rubles.
SKIF is expected to unlock new fundamental insights into matter at micro and nano scales. The resulting technologies aim to advance fields such as microelectronics, chemistry, engineering, and mining, as well as contributions to the military-industrial complex.