THE Russia supplement March 2015

2020 VisionA focus on research andinternationalisation forRussia’s Project 5-100

2 Sponsored supplement from Times Higher Education March 2015

President Vladimir Putin’s hugelyambitious aim to thrust five Russianuniversities into the world’s top 100 by2020 is intended to disprove his country’ssaying “You can’t jump higher than yourhead”. Three years in, the changes facili-tated by the Russian Academic ExcellenceProject 5-100, which aims to do just as itsays and promote academic rigour, arebecoming evident.

A strong representation was seen in theTimes Higher Education BRICS &Emerging Economies Rankings 2015:seven Russian Federation institutionsmade it into the top 100, up from justtwo the previous year. Russia’s “dramaticimprovement”, according to THE rank-ings editor Phil Baty, includes the newentry of three of the 15 institutions takingpart in Project 5-100 – National ResearchNuclear University MEPhI, MoscowInstitute of Physics and Technology, andNovosibirsk State University.

There has been further good news thismonth as two Russian candidates scoredwell in the newly published 2015 TimesHigher Education World ReputationRankings. Baty notes: “There wereencouraging results for Russia: Lomono-sov Moscow State moved up to 25th,from the 51-60 band last year, and SaintPetersburg State University entered thetop 100 in the 71-80 band.”

To join Lomonosov and Saint Peters-burg in the World Reputation Rankings,the Project 5-100 establishments mustcontinue to improve their internationali-sation scores. To this end, collaboratingwith other institutions around theworld to boost the reputation of theirresearch is vital.

There are already examples of suchpartnerships in these pages and, whilenobody is jumping above their ownhead, a realistic pace of change can beclearly observed.

Positive steps

Supplement editors Fiona Salvage andSiân PhillipsSub-editors Sarah Weller and Sarah BancroftDesign Heather Bowen

Produced by TES Global Limited to a brief agreedwith Project 5-100. Paid for by Project 5-100. Alleditorial content commissioned by TES Global Ltd.

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Reigniting the univerMomentum is buildingin Project 5-100 whichaims to propel the toptier of Russia’s researchinstitutions into theglobal elite by 2020.Victoria Bentata reports

provide a clear case study of what can beachieved with a comprehensive, coherentpolicy to develop world-class universities.”

John Morgan, Unesco professor of thepolitical economy of education at theUniversity of Nottingham, and author ofmany papers on education systems in social-ist and post-socialist states, comments that“the improvement in Russia’s BRICS rank-ings is encouraging, but a country of Russia’sstanding really should be aiming to be on apar with the US and Western Europe as faras its higher education institutions areconcerned”. Of Project 5-100 he says: “It isgood to see a systematic approach toreform…after the years of neglect followingthe end of the Soviet Union.”

However, he views as “exceptionally opti-mistic” the target of five universities in theworld’s top 100 by 2020. “It is like turninground a big ship. It takes time to begin theprocess and follow through. You can’t justspin the wheel.” He notes also that, becauseof the general economic problems in Russia,resources for this project are likely to be

The Russian Federation’s ambitiousProject 5-100 has supplied much-neededencouragement to its higher education

sector. Last year, a university vice-rector, whowished to remain anonymous, likened thecountry’s universities to collapsed stars –their light coming from a source that hadlong since disappeared. However, if thatbleak assessment had any truth, Project 5-100seems to be proving that new stars areemerging: the number of Russian institutionsin the Times Higher Education BRICS &Emerging Economies Rankings 2015 hasjumped from two to seven in a year.

In the 2014 BRICS rankings, onlyLomonosov Moscow State University (10th)and Saint Petersburg State University madethe grade (67th). A year later, they hadclimbed to fifth and equal 64th, respectively,and were joined by the National ResearchNuclear University MEPhI (13th), Novosi-birsk State University (34th), MoscowInstitute of Physics and Technology (MIPT)(69th), Ufa State Aviation TechnicalUniversity (70th) and Bauman MoscowState Technical University (equal 90th).Of the newcomers, MEPhI, MIPT andNovosibirsk State are all members ofProject 5-100. Not a bad start.

Project 5-100 has certainly been highprofile and it is possible that, along with thefunding, the attention has focused the greatminds in Russia’s universities on achievingits aims of increasing academic excellenceand catapulting at least five institutions intothe world’s top 100 universities by 2020.

The selection of Moscow as the venue forthe Times Higher Education BRICS & Emerg-ing Economies University Summit in Decem-ber 2014 was a fillip, attended by more than150 university leaders from around theglobe, as well as representatives of some ofthe most prestigious higher education estab-lishments in the emerging economies. PhilBaty, THE’s rankings editor, comments: “TheBRICS & Emerging Economies Rankings

Feeling upbeat the boost to the Russian academy is starting

March 2015 Sponsored supplement from Times Higher Education 3

ity. And, of course, our research is orientedtowards obtaining new knowledge becausewe now have information from the cuttingedge of science.” Novosibirsk has also signif-icantly increased its funding for staff andstudents to participate in international meet-ings, a great boost for the internationalisa-tion objective of Project 5-100.

The THE World Reputation Rankings2015 attempt to measure something lesstangible than the more number-crunchingBRICS & Emerging Economies Rankings, asthey are a subjective measure of how senior

university stars

scholars around the world rate institutions.As Baty explains: “While hard metrics maysuggest that Lomonosov Moscow StateUniversity has lost ground and fallen behind,its history, past glories and dominance of theregion may help it achieve strong reputationscores. It is likely to be riding on its heritage.”

On Russian universities in general, he says:“There’s an issue about image versus reality.But having a powerful global reputation isvery important and something to build on.”

Russia’s new stars are beginning to attractwider attention, but they will need to burnmuch more intensely if five of the country’suniversities are to cross the line in 2020.

MIPT, one of these, has indeed been a hiveof activity since the initiative was announced.In the past year, 30 new labs have beenfounded, 200 lab employees, many foreign,have joined the staff and 10 internationalconferences have been held. Artem Voronov,its provost, is upbeat: “The 5-100 Project hasenabled a significant speeding up…there’s asynergetic effect and mindset shift amongscholars and professors,” he says. l

limited. However, in the longer term, heviews the introduction of the EGE stateexam for university entrance in Russia asencouraging. “This should have importantreform consequences later on because itmeans certain core standards are being metand a uniform and transparent approachadopted throughout the country,” he says.

Representing one of the institutions thathas newly achieved a BRICS ranking,Sergey Netesov, vice-rector (research)

of Novosibirsk State University, is upbeatabout the changes that Project 5-100 hasfacilitated and inspired so far. “We havealready made a lot of improvements,” hesays, citing the organisation of 50 newresearch laboratories, as well as upgradingthe university’s physical environment,computer facilities, textbooks and databaseaccess for students and teachers. He regardsthe latter as key to improving research. “Ifstudents and teachers actively use informa-tional databases for their research andteaching, their publications improve in qual-

President Vladimir Putinis ambitious for Russia’suniversities. In May2012, he called for atleast five of them toreach the top 100 inworld university rankingsby 2020.

In May 2013, acompetition was heldto select 15 top institu-tions to receive extrafunding to help themto achieve this. Look-ing to develop their

international researchpotential, the immediateobjectives includedensuring that at least10 per cent of academ-ics and researchers and15 per cent of studentscame from abroad.

Funding to spurincreased competitive-ness in the higher edu-cation sector is comingfrom central and federalgovernment, as well ascorporate partnerships.

ProjEcT 5-100: rouTE To THE ToP

results driven research is key to reputation

From the top President Putin visits FEFU

starting to be felt among students and staff


For Russian universitieswanting world attention,internationalising theirresearch is crucial.Victoria Briggs finds outhow the 15 institutionsin Project 5-100 areraising their profiles

Overseas collaborationsexpand research horizons

The Russian Federation’s plan to havefive of its universities ranked amongthe world’s top 100 by the end of the

decade is well under way.“Russia was a strong performer in the

2015 Times Higher Education BRICS &Emerging Economies Rankings…it madedramatic improvements [compared with2014], with seven 5-100 institutions in thelist,” says Phil Baty, THE’s rankings editor.

Two Russian universities appeared, too,in the THE World University Rankings2014-15 – Lomonosov Moscow StateUniversity (equal 196th, up from the226-250 group) and Novosibirsk StateUniversity (301-350 group, first appearance).According to Baty, the key for other Russianinstitutions with global ambitions lies in theinternationalisation of their research.

“They need to publish more in English to

ensure that the work is properly dissemi-nated and that scholars across the world canaccess and understand the good work beingdone in Russia,” he says, while also stress-ing the importance of international researchcollaborations. Multicultural teams, he says,“tend to be more creative and to produceresearch that is more influential”.

Andrey Volkov, one of the originators ofProject 5-100, comments that while “we didnot expect a great jump in one to two years,we see significant growth of publications injournals indexed by Scopus and Web ofScience; and many universities have estab-lished new centres of excellence, startedinterdisciplinary research and created inter-national teams. From my point of view, forsuch a short period, it is great progress.”

This latest look at the 5-100 universitiesfinds many of them actively involved in

World class Sergey Kobtsev of Novosibirsk State University leads scientific research in laser physics and innovative technologies


efforts to internationalise their research witha diverse range of global partners, bothacademic and commercial.

Sergei Rubin is professor of particle phys-ics at Moscow’s National Research NuclearUniversity MEPhI where he oversees severalscientific collaborations with internationalpartners, including the Atlas experiment atCern (the European Organisation for NuclearResearch in Geneva) – where one of his teamparticipated in the discovery of the Higgsboson – and the US-funded LUX-Zeplindark matter experiment.

Another collaboration is the ItalianBorexino experiment where MEPhI scien-tists, with international colleagues, areresearching “new important data on solarneutrinos”, says Rubin, the progress ofwhich has recently been published in Nature.

Based on analysis of data from theEuropean Space Agency’s Mars Expressmission, scientists at the Moscow Institute ofPhysics and Technology (MIPT), workingwith the Russian Academy of Sciences andLATMOS in France, have obtained newinsights into the Martian climate. Last year,the team discovered a new type of dust in theplanet’s atmosphere. In addition, it hasmapped the distribution and seasonalvariation of water vapour on Mars, based on10 years of monitoring the planet from theorbiter.

The Samara State Aerospace University, amajor space engineering institute, is prepar-ing to launch its first nanosatellite into orbitthis year, along with the third small space-craft made wholly from domestic components.

SSAU has also opened a new unit dedi-cated to researching global navigationsystems. The work of the NavigationReceivers Laboratory is led by Kai Borre,professor of geodesy at Aalborg Universityin Denmark. “In the future, the number ofsatellites and signals will increase,” saysBorre, whose laboratory has plans to developnew navigational features and capabilities.

Nuclear centres throughout the world,

medicine and many other fields,” he says.ITMO University, St Petersburg, has just

launched its first joint medical project with itsneighbour, the Almazov Federal North-WestMedical Research Centre. The convergenceof medical and engineering sciences will bea focus of the collaboration, withITMO University researchers developingbioinformatic techniques in genomics andworking on technologies to manage chronicdiseases such as hypertension and diabetes.

Lobachevsky State University of NizhniNovgorod’s new Institute of Biology andBiomedicine is also involved in pioneeringbiotech research. Opened in December 2014,it brings together all of the university’sdepartments and activities related to biologyand medicine, with many of its students andresearchers receiving training abroad, forexample at University College London.

The Neuroscience Centre at the instituteattracts the largest proportion of researchfunding, which counts among its mainadvances a mathematical model thatdescribes the interaction between theneuronal and astrocytic brain networks.

Moscow’s Higher School of Economics isanother centre conducting interdisciplinaryresearch into neuroscience. Established in1992, the school’s first faculties were devotedto economics and social sciences and soonexpanded into engineering and thehumanities. With the addition of theMoscow State Institute of Electronics andMathematics in 2011, HSE began trainingexperts in electronic engineering,telecommunications, computer securityand space technology.

Last year, it founded the first Russiancentre of neurotechnology, launching arange of projects that included mappingspeech functions and the mathematicalmodelling of decision-making processes.New plans are under way to develop

as well as multinational companies such asSamsung and Panasonic, use laser systemsdeveloped at Siberia’s Novosibirsk StateUniversity. Sergey Kobtsev leads its laserphysics and innovative technologies division.He explains that NSU’s lasers are used foradvanced research into atom cooling andtrapping, the physics of nanostructures,metamaterials and terahertz emitters.

Kobtsev’s laboratory is also working on anatom optical clock and quantum magnetom-eter. “We hope to create their prototypes forcommercial use soon, which will be in highdemand in navigation, telecommunications,

Multicultural teams tendto be more creative andproduce research that ismore influential

Big impact National Research Nuclear University MEPhI participates in mega science projects

Leading the way the inorganic nanomaterials laboratory of Dmitri Golberg at MISiS

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neuro-engineering projects with interna-tional partners that include the HelsinkiUniversity Central Hospital.

Neuropharmacology is a major speciali-sation at the Far Eastern Federal University’s(FEFU’s) School of Biomedicine, whichlays claim to the creation of several drugprototypes to improve memory and atten-tiveness in diseases such as Alzheimer’s.The school has research partnerships in placewith the University of California, San Diego,and Taipei Medical University, which test thepharmaceutical substances created at FEFU.

In addition, the university, on Russia’seastern coast, is a recipient of a government“mega-grant” to conduct research intobiologically active substances produced frommarine organisms in the hope of developingnew vaccines.

Tomsk Polytechnic University in Siberialast year opened a laboratory in collabora-tion with Nobel laureate Dan Shechtman,professor of materials science at the TechnionIsrael Institute of Technology. According toproject manager Sergey Psakhie, the lab has“ambitious goals” and work is in progresson a new method to suppress tumour cells,with collaborative research also being carriedout by Slovenia’s Jožef Stefan Institute.

TPU’s neighbour, Tomsk State University,is conducting research into climate changein the Arctic with scientists from the Obser-vatoire Midi-Pyrénées. The French-Russianteam have discovered a decrease in theregion’s permafrost and the drying-up oflarge lakes that play an important role in thecarbon cycle.

“We consider the most relevant prob-lems of modern earth science,” says OlegPokrovsky, who leads TSU’s BioClimLandCentre. “We have begun to assess thecarbon stock in frozen soils [and] arethe first in the world to conduct this typeof research.”

The Ural Federal University is a 100-year-old institution located in Russia’s mountain-ous centre. Training for industry is one of itsmissions, with collaborations that includemanagement consultants McKinsey & Co

and the Russian Ministry of Health. InDecember, the university extended its strate-gic partnership with academic publisherElsevier to share scientific expertise and bestpractice with the aim of boosting its perfor-mance in global rankings.

In other developments, its scientists areresearching technologies aimed at extractingrare earth metals from uranium ore. Pilotproduction is expected to begin shortlywhich, say scientists, will promote economicgains for Russia by reducing by a third itsdependency on rare earth metal imports.

Among the research being carried out atthe National University of Science andTechnology MISiS is a project to develop theso-called “dream material” – a super-solidnanocomposite, stronger than steel butlighter than aluminium. Leading the projectis visiting scientist Dmitri Golberg fromJapan’s National Institute for MaterialsScience. Last year, under the supervision ofDmitry Luzgin – another visiting professorfrom Japan – MISiS scientists developed aunique hybrid of metallic glass for use in theaerospace and healthcare sectors.

Peter the Great St Petersburg PolytechnicUniversity is researching new materials foruse in lithium ion batteries which, it is

Russian institutionsrequire strong strategicpartnerships to make abig impact quickly

The bigger picture research is wide-ranging, but each Project 5-100 establishment can boast of being the best in Russia in particular fields

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The Far Eastern Federal University is a majorresearch and innovation centre with more than35,000 domestic and international students, 368laboratories and a brand new campus, the largestin Russia. Its main development areas includenanotechnology, biomedicine, geopolitics andocean resources.

The Higher School of Economics is the firstRussian university to be recognised by theInstitute of International Education, receiving anhonourable mention in the Internationalising theCampus category of its Andrew Heiskell Awards.It has 130 partnerships with internationalestablishments, including the United NationsEducational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisationand the Organisation for Economic Cooperationand Development.

ITMO University opened its first European office inBrussels last year and plans for it to become a hubfor “educational and scientific cooperation withcolleagues from around the world”. The university’snetwork of research laboratories is headed bydomestic and international researchers andcontributes significantly to ITMO’s research andpublication rates.

Kazan Federal University is Russia’s second-oldestuniversity and counts seven Nobel prizewinnersamong its alumni. It offers 419 academicprogrammes with courses that include biomedicine,pharmaceutical science, oil production andspace technologies.

Lobachevsky State University of Nizhni Novgorodis home to “Lobachevsky”, one of the world’s mostpowerful supercomputers, and has partnerships inplace with 100 international higher educationinstitutions and scientific centres, as well as severalhigh-tech firms.

Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology came69th in the BRICS & Emerging Economies Rankings2015. Boasting eight Nobel prizewinners on faculty,and two more among alumni, it has many strategicpartnerships in place, eg, with Samsung and Cern,the European Organisation for Nuclear Research.

The National Research Nuclear University MEPhIentered the physical sciences top 100 in the TimesHigher Education World University Rankings 2014-15and took 13th place in the BRICS & EmergingEconomies Rankings 2015 – the highest placed ofthe Project 5-100 universities. Its alumni include thephysicist and Nobel laureate Nikolay G. Basov.

The National University of Science and TechnologyMISiS has 22 laboratories and research centresunder the guidance of leading scientists. Therecipient of several government mega-grants, MISiSoffers expertise in materials science, metallurgy,mining and new technology.

Novosibirsk State University broke into the top 400of the THE World University Rankings 2014-15 forthe first time and was placed 85th for physicalsciences. Last year, it launched 32 laboratories incollaboration with worldwide scientific centres thatinclude Cern.

Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic Universityis the largest science and engineering researchinstitution in Russia’s northwest region. It haspartnerships in place with 327 universities and 75companies around the world, including Siemens,Philips, Schneider Electric, Bosch and LG.

St Petersburg Electrotechnical Universityis a 129-year-old institution with more than50 high-tech companies among its strategicpartners. Five of its faculty are members of theRussian Academy of Sciences and its alumniinclude the physics Nobel laureate Zhores I. Alferov.

Samara State Aerospace University providestraining in a wide variety of engineering disciplines,providing unique skills that are fundamental to theaerospace, aviation, electronics, metallurgy,automotive and IT industries. It is renowned for itsinternational summer school on space technologyand science. SSAU has international collaborationsand agreements with 47 partner universities.

Tomsk Polytechnic University is one of only five ofthe Project 5-100 universities to have won twogovernment mega-grants for the 2014-16 period.Its alumni include two Nobel laureates,as well as the inventors of the space drill and theworld’s first turbodrill.

Tomsk State University is the largest university inthe Asian part of Russia, comprising 43 leadingscientific schools. It places a strong emphasis oninnovation – in 2013, TSU scientists inventedprosthetic devices for fingers and toes usingnanoceramics.

Ural Federal University has 12 research laboratoriesheaded by leading international scientists, includingthe French Nobel laureate Jean Jouzel. FormerRussian president Boris Yeltsin is an alumnus.

SpEcialiTiES and STrEngTHS of THE 15 projEcT 5-100 univErSiTiES

hoped, might be used to facilitate the transi-tion from gas and diesel engines to electricmotors. The project is being conducted inconjunction with a Chinese battery manufac-turer, with whom St Petersburg has launcheda joint research laboratory to develop areplacement for scarce and expensive cath-ode materials. The project makes use of theuniversity’s unique research equipment andits Chinese partner’s infrastructure.

The city is home, too, to St PetersburgElectrotechnical University (LETI). Itrecently received government funding tobegin research into “memristors”, a type ofelectrical circuit. The research is beingconducted with the National Institute forMaterials Science in Japan and Finnishcompany Beneq Oy. LETI has other partner-ships with IBM and US software companyEpam Systems, with which it partners on ITand nanotechnology research programmes.

IT developments are also the focus ofengineers at Kazan Federal University who

have created a fractal antenna that providesimproved wi-fi connectivity. The antenna isthree times smaller than the standard modeland so reduces production costs. Accordingto associate professor Dmitry Chikrin, headof KFU’s department of autonomous roboticsystems, the US multinational Cisco is poisedto become an important project investor.

“Some of the Project 5-100 membersalready make the world top 100 in theirspecialist fields,” says THE’s Baty, whobelieves that, with the right focus andinvestment, other Russian institutions havethe potential to rise in global league tablesby 2020. To do that, he says, they require a“clear specialist focus and strong strategicpartnerships to make a big impact quickly”.

Although it is too early to predict whichof the 5-100 institutions will eventually rankamong the global top tier of universities,their collective commitment in rising to thechallenge set by the Russian Ministry ofEducation is beyond doubt. l

Hands on a student at Moscow’s MIPT

accord Nobel laureate Alferov (centre) visits ITMO

THE Russia supplement March 2015

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Transcript of THE Russia supplement March 2015