The article presents aspects of the legal status of scientists, both internationally and at the Russian level. By the example of the CERN scientific project, the peculiarities of the legal experience of scientists involved in the scientific experiments of CERN are revealed, as well as the corresponding legal regulations. On the basis of the analysis, the expediency of identifying a special legal status of scientists working on unique scientific facilities of the “MegaScience” class is substantiated, which needs additional theoretical understanding.

Scientific projects of the “megascience” class are large-scale scientific facilities that require the attraction of significant human, material and financial resources. Given these features, they are most often realized by sharing costs between several states interested in implementing projects. The involvement of foreign participants in Russian scientific projects of the “megascience” class leads to the need to comply with the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation, which do not take into account the specifics of projects of the “megascience” class, in particular the organization of the stay of foreign scientists, engineers, their labor activities, import and export of scientific equipment, personnel training and others. In this regard, the report considers options for an integrated approach to the legal regulation of scientific projects of the “megascience” class in order to improve their implementation mechanisms and make them more attractive to foreign participation.

The creation of unique scientific facilities of the “Megascience” class is a very complex and lengthy organizational and technical process, for the implementation of which the resources of several states are usually involved. In connection with the participation in the creation and implementation of a scientific project of the “Megascience” class of several states, it becomes necessary to distribute the rights, duties, costs and powers of project management among the participants. Currently, the Russian Federation lacks a sufficient level of legal regulation of projects of the “Megascience” class. Based on the analysis of Russian and foreign experience in the implementation of scientific projects of the “Megascience” class, the article presents proposals for improving the legal regulation of these projects being implemented on the territory of the Russian Federation. The article also discusses the specific problems that one has to face when implementing projects of the “Megascience” class in Russia, and the ways to solve them. In addition, the authors’ definitions of such key terms as “Megascience” class project, “unique scientific facility of the “Megascience class” and “scientific collaboration,” which are absent in the current legislation, are proposed. This research was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant 18-29-15036mk “Models for legal regulation of unique scientific facilities of ‘Megascience’ class at the national and international levels in the context of technological development of the Russian Federation”).

The article presents aspects of the legal regulation of international scientific cooperation aimed at the creation and operation of unique scientific installations of the “MegaScience” class. On the example of scientific projects CERN, ITER, XFEL and JINR, the individual features of legal regulation are analyzed: the legal basis, the key provisions of the concluded international agreements, as well as the relationship with the legislation of the Russian Federation. On the basis of the analysis and generalization, the author identifies the features of legal regulation, which should be taken into account when creating future scientific projects of the “MegaScience” class.

The article presents aspects of the legal regulation of international scientific cooperation aimed at the creation and operation of unique scientific installations of the “megascience” class. On the example of scientific projects CERN, ITER and XFEL, the individual features of legal regulation are analyzed: the legal basis, the key provisions of the concluded international agreements, as well as the relationship with the Russian legislation. On the basis of the analysis and generalization, the authors identify the features of legal regulation, which should be taken into account when creating future scientific projects of the “megascience” class.