News

The National Training Workshop for Technology and Innovation Support Centres’ personnel ended on 29 November, 2018 at the Higher School of Economics; it was organised by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), Rospatent, and the Federal Institute of Industrial Property (FIIP), and lasted for three days at various venues. HSE experts presented their approaches to patent analysis, and legal protection of intellectual property. According to the workshop participants, the university’s research in patent statistics and big data analysis (which is playing an increasingly important role in the area) was most impressive, and contributed to extending knowledge horizons.

The HSE Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge presents an analysis of the country’s technological specialisation made on the basis of analysing Russian patent applicants’ activities in 2007–2016 in 35 technology areas (in line with the World Intellectual Property Organisation classification), and how it compares with the overall global structure.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed Decree No. 672 on November 26 “On the creation of an innovation cluster in Moscow,” thus putting in motion an initiative of Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin that the Higher School of Economics had played an active role in developing. Throughout the past year, HSE specialists studied the best practices of the world’s innovative megacities, worked with the Moscow government to hold a series of expert discussions on the principles of forming an innovation supercluster, and developed a draft concept establishing guidelines for interactions between potential cluster participants. Over time, the planned supercluster has the potential to embrace Moscow’s entire advanced-technology economy.

The annual meeting of the International Advisory Council of the HSE Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge took place on 14 November. This year the Council convened before the “Foresight and STI Policy” conference, so discussions of the ISSEK’s 2018 results, its plans for the next year, and approaches and techniques for studying and foreseeing S&T development occasionally overlapped with the conference agenda. The debates highlighted major trends which could affect relevant policies in the coming years.

Strategic planning skills are increasingly often seen as a core competence for the 21^st century; researchers are trying to measure regions’ and whole countries’ readiness for the future, while futures studies the world over are conducted on an impressive scientific foundation. On 15-16 November the VIII International Academic Conference “Foresight and STI Policy” will take place in Moscow. Participants from more than 15 countries will present tens of case studies reflecting practices of international organisations (such as OECD, UNESCO, European Commission), governments, major companies, leading universities and R&D centres; analyse global development scenarios and challenges, cutting-edge foresight approaches and tools, and best practices of measuring and monitoring progress in the science, technology and innovation sphere.

Every year the world’s cinema adds something to the shelf where feature films about scientists are kept. It might be about time to conduct a study “The image of scientist in popular culture”. The image should be a flattering one: scientists in movies are either villains, heroes, or geniuses. The only problem is, stories about saving the world and being a genius have very little in common with researchers’ everyday life. To mark the World Science Day we made a short list of movies where scientists are portrayed more or less realistically.

On the third day of the VII Open Innovations Forum Evgeny Kutsenko, Head of the HSE ISSEK Russian Cluster Observatory took part in two panel discussions. The first one focused on new tools for providing support to innovative clusters – world-class investment appeal leaders, while the second was devoted to Moscow’s prospects of becoming a global innovation centre by concentrating its creative and production potential around an innovative cluster.

One of the round table discussions at the VII Open Innovation Forum (15-17 October, Skolkovo) focused on using various indices and rankings to adjust  goals and objectives, and assess effectiveness of innovation policies. HSE ISSEK members Vitaly Roud and Evgeny Kutsenko took part in the debates, speaking about applying the Global Innovation Index and the ISSEK-maintained Russian Regional Innovation Development Ranking in management practices on the regional and city levels.