At the end of last week, Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, Mikhail Kotyukov, visited Yekaterinburg, where he held a number of important meetings and a meeting with Rectors of universities. Rector of South Ural State University Alexander Shestakov took part in the discussion of current trends in the development of the fields of education and science.
During the visit of Minister, a strategic session “National Project “Science”: Mechanisms, Tools, and Implementation” was held. There were discussed the issues of project implementation by the organizations under the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation. Heads of scientific organizations and higher education organizations attended the session.
The discussion was held in the format of tasks working groups. Their participants discussed the goals, objectives, and components of the National Project “Science”, financial mechanisms and implementation tools, public-private partnership issues, and personnel tasks. The proposals formulated by the working groups were submitted to a panel discussion, which was held by Mikhail Kotyukov.
“Russian universities should become key structures in the activities of research and educational centres (REC), which will be established in the country,” Minister said.
Mikhail Kotyukov also noted that universities should become assembly points, repeaters of best practices in the implementation of educational programmes and researches.
“Scientific and educational centres should become an ecosystem, an environment that will contribute to a noticeable increase in the quality of graduates training, scientific researches, and the introduction of innovative developments. Universities should become responsible corporations, open to the world so that business and employers would strive to develop partnerships more actively and confidently,” said Mikhail Kotyukov.
“From my point of view, the meeting, which was held in the format of a strategic session, was very important,” comments Alexander Shestakov, Rector of South Ural State University. “It discussed national projects, which will be launched in 2019. Heads of the Ministry and representatives of the university community discussed how these national projects should be organized. We heard the Ministry; the Ministry heard the opinions of Rectors. The meeting was interesting in form and useful in content.”
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The National Project “Science” was developed in accordance with the presidential decree of May. According to the instructions of Vladimir Putin, in 2024 Russia should enter the top five leading countries of the world engaged in research and development in areas defined by the priorities of scientific and technological development. By this date, at least 15 world-class scientific and educational centres should be established.