The 4th NRU HSE International Scientific Conference “Foresight and STI Policy” hosted by ISSEK will take place on 6–7 November, 2014 in Moscow. The participants will discuss various aspects of developing national technology foresight systems, conducting foresight studies for specific sectors of the economy, and designing new S&T policy tools.
SUMMER HIGHLIGHTS
For strategists:the federal law of 28 June, 2014 # 172-FZ “On Strategic Planning in the Russian Federation” was passed. The system of major documents which define approaches to planning now includes the Russian S&T Foresight 2030, commissioned to HSE by the RF Ministry of Education and Science and approved by the RF Prime Minister in January, 2014. More than 2,000 Russian and international experts participated in developing this document, among them representatives of leading think tanks, universities, companies, technology platforms, and innovative territorial clusters.
The complete series of analytical reports presenting results of the Russian S&T Foresight 2030 for seven priority S&T areas were published with open access (in Russian). Also published is the main report ”Russian S&T Foresight 2030” (in Russian) which includes all relevant materials.
For innovators: Russia now holds the 49th place in the Global Innovation Index 2014, moving 13 points up compared with the last year. The study’s authors (from Cornell University, INSEAD, and the WIPO) described this improvement as one of the most impressive ones for 143 countries. The publication of the rating was accompanied by a report analysing innovation development in various countries. Leonid Gokhberg, first vice-rector of HSE and director of ISSEK, and Valentina Polyakova, researcher at ISSEK, co-authored the chapter “Innovative Activities and Skills”. The main points and conclusions are available here: “Children Help Adults to Learn about Innovation”.
For regions: At the round table discussion “Measuring Regions’ Performance: Efficiency and Control Techniques” (held at the Parlamentskaya Gazeta’s press centre on 27 June) Leonid Gokhberg presented the methodology and the results of a study on innovation development rating of the RF regions: “Regional Innovation Development Rating Is a Natural Next Step in Our Research”.
For clusters:the second round of providing support to innovative territorial clusters was launched. From 2014 onwards, federal subsidies increase to 2.5 billion roubles, and all 25 pilot clusters are now eligible to this money. These and other budget policy instruments to support innovative territorial clusters were commented by Russian Cluster Observatory’s experts Evgeny Kutsenko and Sergey Artemov.
The number of territorial clusters is growing: Moscow Composite Cluster was established in July. Leonid Gokhberg was elected a member of the cluster’s executive board.
For students: The first 33 students started their studies at the "Governance of Science, Technology and Innovation" Master’s Programme. In addition to thorough theoretical and practical training in the field of S&T policy and innovation activities management, Russian and international students will gain unique intercultural communication experience. The programme’s administration agreed to exchange students with Seoul National University, and similar negotiations are under way with several other international universities.
For partners:HSE experts and analysts: who are they?Leonid Gokhberg, first vice-rector of HSE, told the "Okna Rosta" about analytical publications and other public activities by HSE experts.
In August, ISSEK researchers Dirk Meissner and Maxim Kotsemir were included in the SSRN top 100 economics authors in terms of the number of downloads during the previous 12 months. In July, the preprint of the paper ′Innovation Concepts and Typology – an Evolutionary Discussion′ by Maxim Kotsemir, Alexander Abroskin and Dirk Meissner went beyond the one thousand SSRN downloads mark – the first publication to achieve that in the framework of the HSE Basic Research Programme.
S&T foresight is moving up to a new level due to adoption of the law “On Strategic Planning in the Russian Federation”. The national expert community is going to become much bigger now; new S&T foresight projects are being launched. In July-September staff members of HSE ISSEK International Foresight Centre (which also has the status of Regional UNIDO Technology Foresight Centre for Russia and CIS) delivered a series of training events on foresight methodologies and tools.
Updating development priorities for the energy sector, and objectives for the new cycle of the Russian S&T Foresight were discussed at the 2nd in this year meeting of the Inter-Departmental Commission on Technology Foresight (on 11 July at the RF Ministry of Education and Science). Mechanisms for practical application of the previous study’s results in the national strategic planning system were presented by Leonid Gokhberg.
Enterprise statistics’ role in monitoring economic growth and its connection with statistics of R&D, innovation, and ICT were discussed at the workshop “International Seminar on Industrial Statistics” (Vienna, 11–13 June). Natalia Kovaleva, director of ISSEK Centre for Statistics and Monitoring of Education, presented a review of Russian enterprise statistics and spoke about the Institute’s research in the area of statistics and monitoring economics of knowledge.
“Will technological development lead to total disappearance of middle class?”– the topic of the panel discussion at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (22–24 May). Ozcan Saritas, research professor at ISSEK Laboratory for Science and Technology Studies, made a presentation.
Partnership of HSE Foresight Centre with Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) is developing in the framework of the International Foresight Academy. In June, Yevgeny Plisetsky and Galina Kopychenko, staff members of HSE Institute of Regional Studies and Urban Planning, studied AIT’s experience in foresight-based regional and urban development, and presented results of their own work on urban planning.
ISSEK’s monitoring and other research provided data for regular publications in mass media and at HSE web portal, e.g. in the section:
“Figure of the Day”
82% of parents are convinced that these days it is vital to have a degree 10% of Russian families with children believe any kind of higher education would do for the child, while specific profession and university are less important 28% of Russian families are willing to devote up to 10% of their monthly budget to ensure their children have a quality education 27% of Russian families are willing to fully support their children and do not expect them to earn money until they complete their bachelor studies 43% of parents would refuse to give a bribe in order for their child to receive high scores on the Unified State Exam 57% of Russian families do not have the opportunity to choose which school their children attend 15% of students in continuing education programmes take part for general development, out of a thirst for knowledge and for interaction with others 32% of Russian universities are focused on vocational training for regional and local labour markets 4,5% of employees in companies in the knowledge industry in 2013 had two degrees, a post graduate degree or an MBA 9% of Russian Internet users involved in self-study choose online methods of education 23% of Russians expect the country’s economy to experience positive changes in the coming 12 months 25% of industrial companies are anticipating further price increases in the next 3-4 months for the products they manufacture 61% was the average capacity utilization level at Russian manufacturing companies in July – the lowest in three years 24% of construction companies reduced their headcount in 2Q, 2014 15%– the average share of profit in the earnings of companies producing knowledge-based services in 2013 70% of Russians have not taken a single vacation outside their own residential areas in the last year 11% of Russians who vacation abroad organise their trips themselves
Books, analytical reports, book chapters, textbooks
Forthcoming: Miles I., Saritas O., Sokolov A. (eds.) (2014). Foresight for Science, Technology and Innovation. Springer.
Efimenko I., Khoroshevsky V. (2014) New Technology Trends Watch: An Approach and Case Study. Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (subseries of Lecture Notes in Computer Science), no. 8722, pp. 170–177.
Contacts
HSE Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge Address for correspondence: 20, Myasnitskaya st., 101000, Moscow, Russia Actual address: 9-11, Myasnitskaya st., 101000, Moscow Phone: +7 495 621-28-73 Fax: +7 495 625-03-67 E-mail: issek@hse.ru Web: http://issek.hse.ru/en/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/issek.hse.ru
Have you spotted a typo?
Highlight it, click Ctrl+Enter and send us a message. Thank you for your help!
To be used only for spelling or punctuation mistakes.
