Priority growth areas as seen by Russian citizens
Agriculture and manufacturing industry are seen by Russians as the country’s priority growth areas, followed by medicine, according the public opinion survey (1,670 respondents aged 16+) aimed at measuring social impacts of innovation. It was conducted on September 26–29, 2014 under the HSE ISSEK project “Forming the research programme in the sphere of social and human sciences and economics and evaluating social effects of innovation activities” carried out for the Russian Ministry of Education and Science.
30% (figure of the day)
of entrepreneurs in the retail sector reported that they had reduced headcount in their organisations in 4Q 2014. Compared with the beginning of the year, the trend with respect to headcount reductions has doubled. These data are presented in a new Monitoring the Business Climate in the Retail Trade study that was conducted by HSE ISSEK Centre for Business Tendency Studies.
Water in the XXI Century
Drinking water is a strategic resource, and it’s getting more expensive all the time. Quality and availability of water depend on many factors and challenges, both global (e.g. climate change) and national ones (such as poor management of water resources). Ways to make water systems sustainable, use water more efficiently, and develop innovative products and services for the sector were discussed at HSE ISSEK conference “Foresight and STI Policy”.
55% (figure of the day)
of Russians age 25–64 who have a vocational education believe that their current activities partially or fully coincide with the education they received. These data were collected during a nationwide representative survey of participation by adults in continuing education. The survey was carried out as part of a Monitoring of Education Markets and Organisations study conducted by HSE in collaboration the Levada Centre in the autumn of 2014.
51% (figure of the day)
of families do not reject the idea of higher education for their children if they are unsuccessful in enrolling for a tuition-free spot. They either look for another university with less demanding requirements or enroll as tuition-paying students. These data were obtained in a survey of Russian families with children under the age of 22 that was conducted as part of a Monitoring of Education Markets and Organisations study conducted by HSE in collaboration with the Public Opinion Foundation.
Elias Carayannis on Stimuli to Innovations in Europe and the USA
Free market or government interventions? This eternal dilemma is tightly interconnected with innovations. At the IV Foresight and STI Policy conference held by the HSE Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge (ISSEK), George Washington University professor Elias Carayannis spoke about the differences in this field between Europe and the USA.
Ian Miles: Foresight Helps to Form a Common Vision of the Future
Foresight activities have been going on in the UK for 20 years now. Their results have been used by private companies, NGOs, local and national governments. Ian Miles, Head of Research Laboratory for Economics of Innovation at the ISSEK (HSE) and Professor of Technological Innovation and Social Change at the University of Manchester, spoke at the IV Foresight and STI Policy conference about the ways foresight helps develop the British society.
Online education, robots, and automatic cookers: what innovation means to Russians?
Less than a half of our compatriots (45%) know the word “innovation”. Every third Russian either never heard the term before, or has problems defining its meaning. These are the results of the survey of a representative sample of the Russian population (1,670 people aged 16 or older) conducted on 26–29 September, 2014 by Yuri Levada Analytical Centre (commissioned by HSE Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge).
36,9% (figure of the day)
is the share of total investment in technological innovation that Russian companies devote to research and development. The amount is nearly 411 billion roubles. New data received by the Russian Federal State Statistics Service were analysed by HSE ISSEK Centre for Statistics and Monitoring of S&T and Innovation.
47% (figure of the day)
of Russians age 16 to 74 use social networks. These data are presented by ISSEK experts in the HSE Data Book ‘Information Society Indicators 2014’, available in Russian at the webpage.