Skolkovo stretches its arms wide…

Universities of Novosibirsk and St. Petersburg are integrating with Skolkovo

Andrey Sobolevsky, RIA "Siberia"

The Advisory Scientific Council of the Skolkovo Innovation Center at a meeting in Novosibirsk Akademgorodok supported the initiative of Russian universities to integrate with the educational direction of the Skolkovo project.

"We have been discussing this topic since the very beginning of our work," said Academician Zhores Alferov, co–chairman of the Advisory Scientific Council, "at the first working meeting in February 2010. At the previous council meeting in Berlin, we considered the proposals of the St. Petersburg Academic University of the Russian Academy of Sciences, but agreed that we would discuss the issue in more detail taking into account the Novosibirsk State University. Our position is generally that the Skolkovo ideology of the Technological University, which would actively implement new concepts of education, primarily in the master's and postgraduate studies, should be widely spread throughout the country. The fact that this movement begins with Novosibirsk and St. Petersburg does not deny the participation of other universities in Russia."

At the same time, the Nobel laureate noted the importance of the traditions of Novosibirsk Akademgorodok: "Mikhail Alekseevich Lavrentiev created, in fact, an ideal campus of a research university."

Member of the Advisory Scientific Council, Director of the Boreskov Institute of Catalysis SB RAS Academician Valentin Parmon presented the project of participation of Novosibirsk State University in the Skolkovo educational block. It involves the allocation of graduating (graduating) departments of Novosibirsk State University in natural sciences and the formation on their basis of five new scientific and educational centers for the training of undergraduates and postgraduates in the five cluster priorities of Skolkovo (biomedical, nuclear, space, energy-efficient, computer technologies and telecommunications) with the fundamental possibility of organizing these units in "Engineering andNSU Institute of Technology".

"Siberia makes up 2/3 of the territory of Russia, and the Skolkovo outpost would be very reasonable here," Valentin Parmon summed up.

"From my point of view, it would be optimal to make our two universities the Russian core of cooperation with Skolkovo," Zhores Alferov believes, "If we create five research and educational centers, for example, two in St. Petersburg and three, say, on the basis of Novosibirsk, in breakthrough areas corresponding to Skolkovo clusters, then we will be able to train specialists postgraduate and PhD levels with the involvement of teachers from abroad."

"The financial costs of creating such a core on the basis of two universities cannot be compared with the costs that are directed to the creation of the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology," the co–chairman of the advisory scientific council added.

"We already have buildings, laboratories, clean rooms and much more. But the new scientific and educational center requires appropriate support, and additional funding should be provided," says Zhores Alferov, who is also the rector of the St. Petersburg Academic University of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

"We really need to enter the Skolkovo system, which is designed to work in modern market conditions at the highest international level," Academician Alexander Aseev, Chairman of the SB RAS, said at the end of the discussion, "The Siberian branch, Akademgorodok were created on the principles of complete unity of science, education and innovation. The same system, including the lyceum, has been replicated at the University of St. Petersburg."

The Skolkovo Advisory Scientific Council decided to send proposals from the universities of St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk to the leadership of the Skolkovo Foundation.

For reference.
St. Petersburg Academic University – Scientific and Educational Center of Nanotechnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences was established on the basis of the A. F. Ioffe Institute of Physics and Technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1997 in order to integrate science and education in the field of physics and information technology. The initiative of its organization belonged to the Director of the Institute of Physics and Technology, Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Academician Zhores Alferov, who heads it from the moment of its creation to the present and is the rector of St. Petersburg Academic University.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru03.06.2013