The characteristics of awarded and rejected applicants with the CoS or DoS degree.

Note: ¹Work at a university differs from that at a research institute, mainly, in the need to complement one’s scientific activity with teaching.

An Russian Academy of Sciences or an Russian Academy of Medical Sciences institution.

The specialty was determined based on the topic of the proposal in conformity with the RF-maintained list of specialties for scientists (http://vak.ed.gov.ru/ru/help_desk/). The table lists the most common specialties (with the number of applicants ≥10% of the total number contestants). Any single proposal could contain ≥2 specialties.

Positions in the ratings were presented as median (25^th and 75^th percentiles). This rating is calculated given the total number of publication of an institution’s employees over the period of 2007 to 2011 (data is available on http://elibrary.ru). The highest position in the ratings for institutions listed in eLIBRARY.RU database, is 1, and the lowest –1812; 5 institutions wherein applicants worked full-time are not included in the ratings (the data was not available in the eLIBRARY.RU database in early 2013).