The experts fused together at the conference “Innovative University Ecosystem: Looking for Effective Solutions.” They started their discussion with the problem of how to implement innovations into industry branch. Some of them declared that there was no need to charge scientists with entrepreneurial activities; others supposed that this experience would be very effective for academic environment. The third point of view was that universities needed “business inoculation” provided by startup accelerators and experienced experts who would share their knowledge with students.
Evgeny Kuznetsov, executive-board member of Russian Venture Company, who supported the last position, commented on the qualities required for these experts: “It is a wrong way to hire lecturers who are not connected with business area for training future engineers. We should follow European way – its` universities hire experienced businessmen who give lectures on part time basis to share their knowledge and may be get some useful feedback.”
Kendrick D. White, vice-rector for Innovations of Lobachevsky State University of Nizhni Novgorod, argued that it is very difficult for all Russian universities to hire skilled business experts because their services will be very expensive. Thus it is affordable only for those universities that receive extra subsidies from the government such as participants of 5-100 Russian Academic Excellence Project. Mr. White also noted that the experts who deal with both business and science become more and more necessary for Russian higher education.
According to Elena Tkachenko, representative of St. Petersburg State University of Economics, the interaction of economic oriented and technical universities is a trend to be followed. However it is pointless to teach those students who don’t want to study business because only 10 % of technical students are interested in this field.
To develop its` innovative ecosystem a university should organize independent departments connected with innovative activities, for example, Isis Innovation LTD based on Oxford University. As Mr. Kuznetsov noted, such centers commercialize new technologies developed by universities. The representatives of ITMO University mentioned that iDealMachine is a striking example of accelerator facilities.
“Four years ago when we launched the first accelerator in Russia, we took a risk because we had to implement a new element into the established system, which had been formed many years ago. However iDeal Machine and its` projects such as SUMIT startup school have brought together many talented people who commercialize research projects as well as help to form new values that lie at the heart of the idea of so called “University 3.0,” which pay the great attention not only for research and education, but also for innovative and business projects,” said Nina Yanykina.
According to Oleg Malsagov, a university makes progress even if all members of its` staff are interested in success.
“A university can be compared with an organism all parts of which have their own functions and responsibilities. Thus education departments develop talented specialists; scientific projects assist in creating new technologies; innovative offices put applied research projects into the market to earn extra money for university as well as raise income year by year,” noted the expert.
Finally the specialists came to the point that despite the advent of such new trends as commercialization of innovative projects the main goal of a university is providing scientific activities. Moreover, they underlined that the interaction between universities and industrial branches cannot give instant results.
“Universities constantly change. However to change the way of thinking one needs several decades. To transform universities that were founded more than thousand years ago one has to spend about 25-30 years. So now the only thing we can do is to make a basis for further development of a new system using human resources and other facilities. That is why representatives of universities, government, business and society have to be patient and aspire for collaboration,” said Igor Rozhdestvensky, head of innovative marketing department of St. Petersburg Polytechnic University.
