ERA.NET—RUS Project Seminar

On 16—17 May the HSE hosted International workshop on setting S&T priorities, organised by the ISSEK in the framework of the ERA.NET—RUS project. The participants have built roadmaps outlining thematic areas for Russia—EU research cooperation.

The workshop consisted of two parts: on 16 May the participants mapped topics for joint research in nanotechnology, and on 17 May — in the climate change area. Similar workshops for the Medicine and Social Sphere subject areas were held in Brussels on 22—23 April.

Alexander Sokolov and Manfred Spiesberger

The Moscow discussions were moderated by Alexander Sokolov, director of the HSE’s Foresight Centre, for the Russian side, and by Karel Haegeman (JRC-IPTS, Spain) and Manfred Spiesberger (ZSI, Austria) for the EU. The necessary administrative functions were carried out by staff members of the HSE’s Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge Elena Nasybulina and Natalia Veselitskaya, and by Gorazd Weiss — another representative of Austria.

In the 16 May working session participated nanotechnology experts from Latvia, Moldova, Poland, Russia, Romania, Turkey, and France; in the 17 May meeting took part ecology experts from Russia, Romania, Moldova, Latvia, Slovakia, Turkey, Finland, and France.

The workshop’s results will be used to prepare the proposal for ERA.Net RUS plus project for the EU Framework Programme Horizon 2020, and to lay the groundwork for activities planned for 2014 — the EU-Russia Year of Science.

The workshop began with a presentation of a Delphi survey conducted at the beginning of 2013 with participation of 7,000 respondents who were asked to map subject areas for EU-Russia research cooperation. According to both Russian and international experts, the three leaders were new materials, nanotechnology and medicine.

The workshop’s results will be used to prepare the proposal for ERA.Net RUS plus project for the EU Framework Programme Horizon 2020, and to lay the groundwork for activities planned for 2014 — the EU-Russia Year of Science.

For each subject area discussed during the workshop (nanotechnology and climate change), road maps outlining their development prospects were built, based on the data from the Long-Term S&T Development Forecast in Russia until 2030 and materials of the Horizon 2020 framework programme. Both road maps included lists of promising research areas, and problems (first of all global challenges) they can help solve. The road maps also display links between various research areas — keeping in mind that new promising research topics may emerge at their junction points.

Both road maps were constantly adjusted during the discussions. The participants tried to formulate the first-order social issues particularly suitable for international research projects. Each expert could vote for three research topics they believed to be the most important ones. Based on the results of the discussion, the initially selected socially important areas for research cooperation were re-grouped, and certain new areas added.

Thus during the first day of the seminar 22 groups of promising research topics in the nanotechnology area were identified through expert discussions, with a potential to become priorities for Russia-EU research cooperation. Also, the participants voted for specific research topics. These included “Advanced nanosensors for environmental and health research”; “Development of new functional nanomaterials changing their design and modelling”; “Nanomaterials for efficient lighting”; “Solar batteries: nanophotonics for energy conversion”; and “Diagnostics: metrologies at nano-level”.

During the second day, the workshop participants identified 25 groups of promising areas for Russia-EU research cooperation in the climate change field, and then voted for specific research topics which included: “Increasing reliability of regional climatic forecasts: models and measurement”; “Environmental impact and risks associated with mining and transportation of resources”; “Extreme climatic events, and their effect on the environment”; “Climate’s impact on ecosystems”; “Prevention and recovery of polluted water systems”; “Climate and pollution in large cities”; “Transport’s impact on the environment”.

By Maria Glazyrina, second year student, Faculty of Law, and Victoria Nosik, second year student, Faculty of Media Communications, probationers at the HSE Web portal’s news service

Photographs by Nikita Benzoruk

The original text is published at the HSE web portal