News

Russia is 43rd in the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2016, up five positions from its 2015 ranking. Just as last year, Switzerland, Sweden, U.K., U.S. and Finland remain the top-ranking countries in the GII. These are the findings from the GII 2016 report comparing the performance of national innovation systems in 128 economies.

Many Russians practice user innovation by developing their own inventions for use in everyday life, recreation, sports, etc. According to a study by Fursov and Turner conducted as part of the HSE ISSEK Monitoring Survey of Innovative Behaviour of the Population, the estimated share of user-innovators in Russia may be as much as 10%, which is substantially higher than in many other countries.

Science towns are becoming serious players in the national strategic planning system. The federal law “On the Science Town Status” becomes valid in the next year, obliging the local authorities to design long-term socio-economic development strategies. Science towns’ mayors, members of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science, and experts from the Higher School of Economics discussed practical aspects of meeting the law’s requirements at a conference hosted by HSE on 5 July.

Science, technology and innovation policy is a field that requires special skills and knowledge. The MA programme in Governance of Science, Technology and Innovation trains professionals for management and policy making in this area of work. On June 28, the first cohort graduated from the programme. 

At the beginning of June, SCImago Journal and Country Rank announced its 2015 rankings of journals indexed in the international academic citation database Scopus.  Foresight , a journal published by the Higher School of Economics, placed 115 in the new ranking. Less than three years ago, the journal placed into the second quartile in the Business, Management and Accounting (miscellaneous) ranking, becoming the first Russian publication to rank in this category. In addition, Foresight was among the top-ten best Russian journals in the social sciences and humanities, according to the Scopus ranking.

According to a recent survey, Russians are more likely to accept flying cars, smart homes and other futuristic wonders than genetically-engineered biomedical interventions.

Policymakers are increasingly turning to foresight techniques for guidance when addressing the wide array of problems and challenges arising in their work. A new book co-edited by Leonid Gokhberg, Dirk Meissner, and Alexander Sokolov from the HSE ISSEK, attempts to add another dimension — namely, opportunities — that can come from proper application of foresight techniques.

The technological image of the world is changing rapidly. Even for ordinary consumers, tracking new products on the market and analyzing their benefits and drawbacks is becoming more and more complicated given the abundant supply. This task is even more pressing for those who make decisions to advance certain areas of research and development. A presentation by Leonid Gokhberg, First Vice Rector of HSE and Director of the HSE Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge (ISSEK), at an April Conference plenary session, argues how global challenges enhance the need for evidence-based R&D and innovation policy.