The National Committee of Soviet Biologists (now the National Committee of Biologists of Russia) was established by order of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences No. 210-2916 of 30 December 1957, following the USSR Academy of Sciences' accession to the International Union of Biological Sciences – International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS).
IUBS, founded in 1919, plays a widely recognized role in developing the most important areas of modern biology. The union comprises 44 ordinary members, mostly representing national academies of sciences, and 80 scientific members (associations, scientific societies, and commissions). IUBS General Assemblies are held every three years, at which directions for the development of biology in the coming years are outlined. The most recent, the 29th General Assembly, was held in 2007 in Washington. The order of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences defined the tasks of the Committee being established: strengthening the ties of Soviet biologists with foreign organizations; preparing for events related to the participation of Soviet biologists in international congresses on the biological sciences; informing the Soviet scientific community about the work of IUBS; raising issues with various organizations in connection with the preparation and outcomes of international congresses on the biological sciences; and promoting the exchange of publications between Soviet and foreign biologists. Throughout these years, scientific-organizational and financial support for the Committee was provided by the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Evolutionary Morphology and Ecology of Animals of the USSR Academy of Sciences (now the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IEE RAS)).
In accordance with the Regulations on the National Committee of Biologists of Russia, the Committee's executive body is its Presidium, elected at the Committee's general meeting for a term of three years. The Presidium consists of the Committee's chairman, deputy chairman, scientific secretary, and other Presidium members. The first chairman of the National Committee of Soviet Biologists was Academician V.N. Sukachev, who was succeeded in this post by Academician M.S. Gilyarov. From 1985 to 1998, the Committee was chaired by Academician V.E. Sokolov, and in 1998–2002 by Academician N.G. Khrushchov. In 2002, Academician D.S. Pavlov was appointed chairman of the Committee; his deputies are Academician Yu.Yu. Dgebuadze (since 2007) and Dr. Sci. (Biol.) A.A. Kotov (since 2015); the scientific secretary is Cand. Sci. (Biol.) V.V. Bobrov (since 2007).
The National Committee of Biologists of Russia maintains constant contact with the IUBS Secretariat; the leadership of the Committee (NCBR) takes part in the work of its governing bodies – the General Assembly and the Executive Committee.
For a number of years, both IUBS and the National Committee of Biologists of Russia have focused on the international scientific program for biodiversity conservation, DIVERSITAS (this program is currently being transformed).
IUBS and the NCBR devote considerable attention to such areas as improving and raising the level of training of biology specialists, studying the concentration of harmful elements in ecosystems, developing methods of bioindication and biomonitoring, and conducting research on reproductive biology and aquaculture, and on systematics and bionomenclature. Under the auspices of IUBS, a worldwide inventory of species diversity – «Species 2000» – was launched.
To inform the international scientific community, the NCBR prepared special analytical reviews of research conducted on the initiative of IUBS. In particular, review articles on research conducted by Russian specialists were published in the IUBS journal «Biology International.» A series of articles on global and regional environmental monitoring systems and biodiversity conservation issues, on the development of the DIVERSITAS International Program and Russia's possible role in its implementation, and on long-term ecological research, was published in the journal «Advances in Modern Biology» (Uspekhi Sovremennoi Biologii). Research programs in Russia under the RAS Presidium's fundamental research programs «Biodiversity» and «Living Nature,» launched in the 2000s, were carried out taking international experience into account.
RAS was at one time the initiator of research on ecological mega-transects to study the possible impact of global climate and environmental change on biodiversity. In recent years this area has attracted growing attention, and in 2009 these ideas began to be implemented within the framework of the international IUBS project (with Russian participation) «Biological Consequences of Global Change.» In 2011, field research by international teams of scientists under this project began in the middle reaches of the Yenisei River, in Mongolia, and on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China.
RAS membership in IUBS makes it possible to promote Russian scientists to the governing bodies of this organization and, through this, to influence IUBS policy and the structure of the programs it carries out. In particular, in July 2012, at the IUBS General Assembly in Suzhou (China), the Deputy Chairman of the National Committee of Biologists of Russia, RAS Academician Yu.Yu. Dgebuadze, was elected Vice-President of IUBS. In December 2015, at the 32nd IUBS General Assembly in Berlin (Germany), Dr. Sci. (Biol.) A.A. Kotov was elected a member of the IUBS Executive Committee. The work of the RAS representative on the IUBS Executive Committee has, in recent years, made it possible to form a joint research project and support a number of events organized by RAS. The National Committee of Biologists of Russia receives periodicals (in particular, the IUBS journal «Biology International») and working materials on IUBS programs, which makes it possible to stay abreast of processes and trends observed in modern biology and to draw the attention of Russian scientists to them. IUBS has also repeatedly provided assistance in holding international meetings and financial support for the participation of RAS specialists in international meetings, which is extremely important under current conditions of fundamental science funding.
With the support of IUBS, the National Committee of Biologists of Russia has produced a number of publications (in particular, the map «Vegetation of European Russia»), and has held international conferences, meetings, schools for young scientists, seminars, and symposia on promising areas of general biology. For example, in the last 5 years, with the participation and support of the National Committee of Biologists of Russia and IUBS:
– proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium «Alien Species in the Holarctic» («Borok-3»), held in Myshkin on 5–9 October 2010 (also supported by IUBS), were published;
– a Chinese-Russian symposium on Amur tiger conservation was held in Hunchun (China) (2011);
– work was carried out under the «Biological Consequences of Global Change» project; materials on the biodiversity of vertebrate animals of taiga ecosystems in Russia, Mongolia (Yenisei River basin), and China (Qinghai-Tibet Plateau) were collected, processed, and partly published (2011–2013);
– the 4th International Symposium «Alien Species in the Holarctic» («Borok-4») was organized and held in Borok, Yaroslavl Region, in 2013;
– the 5th International Conference on Rodent Biology and Management was organized and held in Zhengzhou, China, in 2014;
– the international conference «Ecosystems of Central Asia under Current Conditions of Socio-Economic Development» was organized and successfully held in Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia) in September 2015;
– work was carried out to prepare a three-year joint Norwegian-Russian-Chinese training project on plague research (PlagPART: A Norwegian-Russian-Chinese research and training network on the study of plague), headed by IUBS President Prof. Nils Chr. Stenseth (Principal Investigator(PI): Prof. Nils Chr. Stenseth); the project was supported by the Norwegian Academy of Sciences in 2015;
– work was carried out to organize the international workshop «Global Change Impact on Diseases and Alien Species Expansion,» 2–6 May 2016, Cape Town, South Africa;
– work began on organizing the 5th International Symposium «Alien Species in the Holarctic» («Borok-5»), Borok, Yaroslavl Region, September 2017.
Additional information is available on the IUBS website: www.iubs.org