General information

ISSEK director is Professor Leonid Gokhberg, HSE First Vice-Rector.

ISSEK includes 20 research centres and 2 international laboratories: the Laboratory of Economics of Innovation headed by Professor Dirk Meissner, and the Laboratory for Science and Technology Studies headed by Professor Ozcan Saritas, Editor in Chief of the Foresight academic journal.

Since 2011, an International Advisory Board (IAB) involving leading scientists from the UK, Germany, Canada, China, Korea, USA, Japan and other countries has been operating under ISSEK, headed by Professor of Economics and International Affairs, Department of Economics & Center for International Science and Technology Policy (CISTP), George Washington University (USA) Nicholas Vonortas.

ISSEK staff involves more than 200 people full time, including 60+ doctorate holders, 10+ invited foreign professors, and 60+ research assistants annually. Each year, around 50-60 HSE undergraduate and postgraduate students undergo training and take part in research activities at the Institute. About a third of the ISSEK staff are young researchers and research assistants under 30 years old.

The Institute carries out basic and applied interdisciplinary research in such areas as: measurement of STI, education and digital economy; science and technology (S&T) foresight, technology roadmapping and monitoring of global technology trends; strategies and patterns of behaviour of the actors within innovation systems (companies, universities, research organisations, knowledge-intensive business services, highly qualified R&D personnel, population); design and evaluation of STI policy tools including regional and cluster policies, etc.

ISSEK employees have been involved in government commissions and working groups (Interdepartmental Commission for Technology Development under the Government Commission for Economic Modernisation and Innovative Development, Interdepartmental Working Group for Performance Evaluation of R&D organisations under the Ministry of Science and Higher Education etc.), as well as in the preparation of federal and regional level strategies and programmes in STI, and in innovation development programmes and technology roadmaps for economic sectors, clusters and big companies (including Gazprom, Rosneft, Transneft, Russian Railways, Aeroflot, Russian Post, Roscosmos, etc.). The Russian Cluster Observatory based at HSE ISSEK conducts research and provides analytical and expert support to national authorities on innovative and industrial cluster initiatives.

ISSEK commercializes its research outcomes by conducting a large number of applied research projects (over 130 projects in 2017-2019) and providing policy advice in the field of STI for the Presidential Administration, the Russian Government, federal and regional authorities, development institutions, large companies, R&D organisations and universities.

RESEARCH infrastructure

The research infrastructure of ISSEK includes information and analytical systems, databases of technological trends, statistical indicators of STI, experts database which includes about 4,000 leading Russian and foreign experts. In the last years, ISSEK has promoted and implemented, in many research projects, the intelligent Foresight Analytics System — iFORA, developed in-house by ISSEK IT-specialists. iFORA uses advanced semantic analysis, machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms to integrate diverse information sources (including scientific articles, patents, grants, media, and analytical reports, among others) with the aim of generating and exploring new knowledge, especially that concerning emerging and evolving trends. Providing a new evidence base, such big data analysis makes valuable contributions to foresight and policy analysis.

RESEARCH events

ISSEK organises numerous research events including international academic conferences, workshops and lectures delivered by leading scholars and experts. This includes sections on STI policy and Foresight organised annually as part of the HSE April International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development, and the annual International Conference on Foresight and STI Policy, which the Organisation of Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD) has recognised as one of the most authoritative discussion sites on this issue globally.

In recent years, the publication activity of the ISSEK staff, has steadily increased. Their articles are published in high-ranked academic journals: Research Policy, Journal of Technology Transfer, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Technovation, Scientometrics, Creativity and Innovation Management, R&D Management, Journal of Knowledge Management, Foresight, Industry and Innovation, Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, Journal of Business Research, Entrepreneurship & Regional Development and others.

ISSEK publishes:

• Foresight and STI Governance academic journal (indexed in Web of Science and Scopus (Q1), leading position in the Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI))
• A series of English-language monographs, Science, Technology and Innovation Studies, published by Springer Nature Publishing (there have been over 70,000 paid downloads of book chapters)
• A series of statistical databooks ('Indicators of Science', 'Indicators of Innovation Activity', 'Indicators of the Digital Economy', 'Indicators of Education')
• Analytical reports (these include 'Doing Science: Measuring Business Climate in the Russian R&D Sector', 'Russia 2030: S&T Foresight', 'Russian Regional Innovation Ranking', 'Biomedical Clusters Worldwide: Success Factors and Best Practices', etc.)
• Scientific monographs and methodological guidelines on measuring engineering and industrial design sector, monitoring innovative activities of state-owned enterprises, formation of innovative clusters etc.
• Regular newsletters, information bulletins, analytical reviews and other materials that receive wide media coverage.

The Institute is strongly integrated into the global academic community. It has strong partnerships with international organisations (OECD, Eurostat, European Commission, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNCTAD, APEC, World Bank, IMF, International Telecommunication Union, etc.), leading universities and research centres in more than 20 countries. ISSEK staff members frequently participate in international research networks and collaborations (ERA.Net RUS, Globelics, MEIDE, UniDev, etc.).

The leading researchers of the Institute are members of expert groups and committees of international organisations. They are involved in the development of statistical standards (such as the OECD Frascati Manual and the OECD/Eurostat Oslo Manual) and in the preparation of analytical reports (the OECD’s STI Outlook, UNESCO’s Science Report, the Global Innovation Index [Cornell University / INSEAD School of Business / World Intellectual Property Organisation], etc.).

ISSEK takes an active part in the development of international S&T cooperation between Russia and the EU through the National Contact Points Mobility, Society (INCO), Science and Society of the EU Framework Program Horizon 2020.

Since 2014, ISSEK has been implementing the English-language Master’s Programme 'Governance of Science, Technology and Innovation'. The Master’s Programme has been implementing double degree programmes with Seoul National University (Republic of Korea), Technical University of Berlin (Germany), University of Maastricht (Netherlands) and Politechnico de Torino (Italy), as well as international student exchanges with Seoul National University (Republic of Korea), the University of Bremen (Germany), and the Middle East Technical University (Turkey).

The Institute regularly conducts short-term educational courses in STI measurement, policy and foresight for employees of leading universities, enterprises, and government agencies, including from other countries (e.g. Vietnam, CIS countries).