South Ural State University is a national research university with high-technology research base and highly qualified scientific and technical staff members.
For several years now, SUSU staff members have been acting as experts in assessing the indicators of applications and assessing the all indicators of annual reports on the activities of federal innovation platforms; and they have been preparing analytical notes on each federal innovation platform project. Today, Doctor of Sciences (Pedagogy), Deputy Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs Marina Potapova, Doctor of Sciences (Pedagogy), Professor of the Department of Life Safety Irina Kotlyarova, and Candidate of Sciences (Economics), Associate Professor of the Department of Economics and Finance Daria Baeva act as the experts in assessing the compliance of educational organisations (and their projects) with the status of a federal innovation platform.
Federal innovation platforms are organisations which conduct educational activities, or other organisations operating in the field of education, as well as associations of such organisations, regardless of their organizational and legal form, type, and departmental affiliation, which implement innovative projects or programs of significant importance to ensure modernization and development of the education system, with consideration to the main directions of socio-economic development of the Russian Federation, and the implementation of the priority directions of the state policy of the Russian Federation in the field of education.
(Article 20 of the Federal Law No.273 “On Education in the Russian Federation”).
Federal innovation platforms are created to ensure modernization and development of the education system, with consideration to the main directions of socio-economic development of the Russian Federation, and the implementation of the priority directions of the state policy of the Russian Federation in the field of education.
The focus on innovative approach is the most important task in the overall development trend of the higher education system. In accordance with the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 474 “On the National Development Goals of the Russian Federation for the Period up to 2030” as of July 21, 2020, innovative projects that contribute to the development of economic sectors, aimed at developing, testing and introducing new elements of the content of education and systems of discipline, new pedagogical technologies, teaching-and-methodology and teaching-and-laboratory complexes, forms, methods and means of teaching, training methods, professional retraining, advanced training of personnel, and more, can be a way for achieving the national goals indicators.
Every year, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation determines the most effective federal innovation platforms, the results of the implementation of which are recommended for active use in all educational institutions of higher education. Organisations implementing innovative projects and programs in such fields as digital technologies, artificial intelligence, computer science, digitalization; network programs; engineering education; medicine; genetics; tourism, can apply for this status.
The format of a federal innovation platform allows universities to focus on innovative projects, what, overall, brings university to a new level. This experience is especially important from the point of view of the possible translation of the found successful solutions to other regions and organisations. The demand for such a format is confirmed by a large number and variety of participants. The topics of applications vary widely and clearly reflect scientific, methodological and organizational groundwork formed at universities due to specifics of their activities.
For example, one of the interesting and relevant initiatives is the development of an ecosystem of student innovative entrepreneurship through the opening of a youth business incubator. The ecosystem of forming and developing competencies among students in the field of engineering, technological and innovative entrepreneurship can be organised only on the basis of in-depth immersion in project-network collaboration and cooperation between internal and external stakeholders, what will allow students and university staff members to obtain a basis for the development of their technological ideas and preparation of their innovative projects to attract investments. The project team conducted a big preliminary work, which was reflected in the application, the roadmap of activities was structured clearly and in detail, the budget was thought out and detailed, and the criteria for the success of the basic stages of the project implementation were determined. This is the case when the application has a good foundation and the future of such a project is assessed positively. The government faces global challenges in the development of innovative entrepreneurship and the contribution of universities, especially taking into account the possibility of scaling the most successful formats, can be very significant.
Federal innovation platforms projects help to more quickly solve the issues that are not sufficiently developed in terms of content and regulatory and legal aspects. One of such issues is the network collaboration of organisations, each of which can contribute to the development of education. The idea of one of the projects lies in the development of a comprehensive model of scientific and methodological support for the work of the regional innovative network infrastructure. The model reflects both the technological apparatus and the tools necessary to create conditions and opportunities for the continuous growth of academics’ professional skills on the scale of the regional education system, as well as monitoring the success of scientific and methodological support and professional development of academics. The model represents a complex of subsystems that ensure the interaction of 84 managed and 15 proactive network communities, the development of a network innovation infrastructure and the professional growth of academics. Thus, within the frameworks of the project, the tasks of bringing the quality of education to a new level, as well as ensuring its strategic development, are being solved. The implementation of the project is supported by regulatory legal acts.
“For many years now I have been assessing the applications of candidate organisations and analyzing annual reports of organisations that have received the status of a federal innovation platform,” says Marina Potapova. “Innovative projects and programs of federal innovation platforms should focus on improving the scientific and pedagogical, educational, methodological, organizational, legal, financial and economic, personnel, material and technical support of the education system. Currently, more than 140 federal innovation platforms are functioning, and this year 57 educational organisations have applied for the status of federal innovation platforms. I would like to note that there are more substantial applications with a clear, sought-after result, in which social partners are clearly defined, the mechanisms of network collaboration are described in detail, what will significantly expand educational opportunities.”
According to Marina Potapova, the analysis of annual reports shows that new technologies, such as digitalization, which is organically included in the life of universities as a tool to increase the availability and quality of education, are increasingly used in projects to solve systemic problems. Universities pay a great deal of attention to students with disabilities, implement activities aimed at supporting talented youth and developing entrepreneurial competence among students.
“I am sure that on the basis of innovative projects activities it is possible that the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation will develop a system of measures and methodological recommendations for keeping young specialists in rural regions, improving the model of targeted training. The developed approaches can be taken as a basis for the development of conceptual models for the development of innovative infrastructure and the organization of network collaboration,” continues Marina Potapova. “Based on the integration of the results of the activities of various federal innovation platforms, it is possible to develop federal recommendations for the development of the system of training and retraining of personnel for the general education system. To use the federal innovation platforms model, it is recommended to systemize the results of separate platforms aimed at training a new type of academic staff members, to develop an integrated model with features determined by different developers.”
South Ural State University is the creator of innovative projects and programs that are essential for ensuring the development of the education system. In 2020, the Organization of Infrastructure for Massive Additional Distance Learning of Children Based on the Collaboration of Educational Institutions and Enterprises of the Region project was completed. In the course of 2021, the Development of a Set of Methodological Solutions for the Implementation of Distance Learning in Engineering Education innovative platform is functioning at SUSU, the main goal of which is to improve the quality of engineering education through the development and implementation of a set of methodological solutions for the implementation of distance learning in engineering education and advanced training of the academic staff in the field of using various models of distance learning (distance, blended, electronic learning). This is especially relevant in modern conditions. The platform implementation timeline is until 2023. A large team of staff members of our university is involved in the implementation of this project:
- Marina Potapova
- Alexander Demin
- Elena Yaroslavova
- Irina Kotlyarova
- Pavel Taranenko
- Kseniya Volchenkova
- Vasiliy Ivanov
- Olga Ivochkina
- Irina Stavtseva
- Elena Kolmychevskaya
- Pavel Pisklakov
- Gennadiy Shapovalov.