The annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum is being held from June 14 to 17. The event is attended by experts in the field of economics and business, as well as representatives of leading Russian universities, including the rector of the Southern Federal University.

On June 16, within the framework of the forum, a session "University 3.0: how to ensure the transition of Russian universities to a new technological model" was held, dedicated to the implementation of the state university support program "Priority 2030". The meeting was moderated by the scientific director of the Skolkovo Business School, Andrey Volkov.

The head of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia Valery Falkov drew attention to the fact that one of the main features of the program was a long planning horizon in the development of participating universities.

"The very name of the program contains a planning horizon. This is also not by chance, why we swung up to 2030 immediately and set certain rules of the game and framework. Because business, when we designed the program, said: please give clear goal-setting and teach universities to look far ahead. The planning horizon itself until 2030 implies that universities can count on stable financing of the development program — provided that they develop and show good results — and try to formulate their image in the horizon of 10 years," Valery Falkov said.

In her speech, the rector of the Southern Federal University Inna Shevchenko noted that the Priority 2030 program allows universities located on the same territory to jointly solve the tasks that the regional authorities set for them.

"Thanks to communication with colleagues at the forum, I was convinced that the Priority 2030 program allows us to take a fresh look at cooperation with partners in the city and region: universities, companies, local businesses and, of course, the Government of the Rostov Region, the Don State Technical University and the South Russian Polytechnic University. Because it is simply impossible to solve the tasks that are being set today alone," Inna Shevchenko said.

She also noted that the Priority 2030 program involves focusing not only on existing strong competencies of universities, but also on new ones, the demand for which can be predicted today through mobility programs, mirror laboratories and internship programs, as well as those that are not yet obvious.

In addition, the rector paid attention to the stakes that the university sets for itself today, namely the development of fundamental research, technological leadership, participation in the development of the region, the formation of educational doctrine, expert function and improvement of financial and management models. According to her, all this should be carried out in cooperation with customers and partners.

Recall that the largest state university support program in the history of Russia "Priority-2030" (national project "Science and Universities") was launched in 2021 on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The goal of the program is to form more than 100 progressive modern universities in Russia — centers of scientific, technological and socio—economic development of the country by 2030.

Today, the task of ensuring technological sovereignty and accelerated innovative development is particularly relevant for the country. SFedU, as the winner of the research track of the federal program "Priority 2030", takes an active part in its implementation. The University has identified for itself five main projects that will make it possible to achieve a big breakthrough in science, education and economics: "Express design of materials", "Soil resource management and agro-climatology", "Control systems and hybrid intelligence", "Experimental polygons" and "Social Programming". In addition, the university is implementing a number of institutional changes that will increase the volume and quality of breakthrough research carried out, including in the interests of regional partners: youth policy, campus, educational, digital transformation, human capital management, university management, open data, as well as the policy of innovation and commercialization research.