An ecosystem of university entrepreneurship to be created at Altai State University
On April 17, Altai State University hosted a design and analytical session “The innovative role of the university: transformation and integration of basic policies of Altai State University”. Participants worked through key issues of student, scientific and technological entrepreneurship and commercialization of projects.
When opening the meeting, Sergei Bocharov, Rector of ASU recalled that by order of the President of the Russian Federation, the university community is actively engaged in the entrepreneurial agenda, since our country has announced a course towards technological sovereignty in order to neutralize the threat of technological backwardness in the face of sanctions pressure.
“The key resources for ensuring technological sovereignty are qualified customers and qualified personnel. However, we have a shortage of both, and universities are working to address this challenge. The earlier we get involved in talent development, the better: Altai State University is building cohesive educational trajectories, starting to nurture talented individuals at the school level. When it comes to entrepreneurship, there is a need for professional competencies. We must identify students who are psychologically ready for entrepreneurial activity and have a genuine interest in it. Our task is to focus them correctly at the training stage, ensuring that they are truly committed to implementing technological projects,” noted Sergei Bocharov.
The Rector spoke about the federal project “University Technological Entrepreneurship Platform,” which many universities in the country have joined, including Altai State University. Universities are building an ecosystem favorable for the development of technological entrepreneurship. This initiative is transforming the university itself and enabling it to attract investors. Sergei Bocharov outlined a number of issues that need to be resolved: how to guide students towards creating a technology business, rather than open coffee shops, hairdressers, or tire shops. How to ensure students' involvement in entrepreneurial activity? How can this activity benefit the university?
Evgenia Zhdanova, Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs of ASU, higlighted the concept of the university entrepreneurship ecosystem at Altai State University. She noted that working with the University Technology Entrepreneurship Platform opens up various opportunities for the university, such as setting the agenda, providing funding, etc. Evgenia Zhdanova said that today the Department for Recruiting Applicants, the Boiling Point, the Center for the Development of Technological Entrepreneurship, the Center for Scientific Careers, the Department of Quality Monitoring and Educational Initiatives, the Department of Youth Policy and Educational Work and a number of other departments are involved in the development of university entrepreneurship at Altai State University.
“Over the past five years, the university has experienced significant transformations in fostering entrepreneurship development. These are more than 5 thousand participants, more than 200 startups, financial support amounting to more than 50 million rubles. These are 30 experts, 25 mentors and 13 business coaches. I would like to note significant progress. This is the introduction of a project-based, practice-oriented approach to education: the course “Project Management” is studied by all 1st and 2nd year students, and more than 3 thousand people take the “Project Management” workshop. 348 people study elective disciplines related to project management in their professional activities. A very important point is the development of an additional minor “Technological Entrepreneurship”; 17 people have already chosen it. The module “Project Management in Professional Activities” has been introduced into all master’s curricula. Over a thousand people have undergone professional retraining and developed IT projects as part of the Digital Department project. The most important thing is that we made it possible to prepare the project as a startup, which is carried out at the request of partners,” said Evgenia Zhdanova.
Furthermore, the Vice-Rector highlighted the University’s engagement with Technological Entrepreneurship Platform, and they work with applicants and talented schoolchildren.
Concluding her speech, Evgenia Zhdanova drew attention to the importance of establishing standards within the university entrepreneurship ecosystem to achieve the main goal of increasing the number and survival of startups.
Alexander Dunets, Vice-Rector for Scientific and Innovative Development, elaborated on potential outcomes of intellectual activity at Altai State University and the development of a system for effective commercialization of projects.
“The successful development of university entrepreneurship requires active engagement of both, students and teachers. A scientist is also, to some extent, an entrepreneur, a person who takes risks, who promotes his developments, counting on funding. First of all, we hope for government support and ignore commercialization. This turn towards commercialization, unfortunately, takes a very long time. Therefore, it is not surprising that students follow the same trajectory. At the same time, we have something to offer the customer: these are registered intellectual property objects, the results of contractual projects, as well as the competencies of scientists,” noted Alexander Dunets.
Altai State University has established the Center for Research and Development (R&D), as well as a Technology Transfer Center, aimed at interacting with the real sector of the economy, bringing products, technologies and services of scientists from Altai State University to the market.
Alexander Dunets specifically focused on the barriers: the focus of scientists on projects with a grant basis; lack of competitiveness of our offers; fundamental nature of most works; disinterest of many teachers in the final result of the student product. In addition, often students themselves, on the way to successfully implementing their project, lose contact with the university at the moment they enter the market. The Vice-Rector also noted the lack of specialists capable of effectively promoting the developments of scientists.
The guest of the round table was Elena Razomasova, Associate Professor of the Department of Business Economics and Logistics of the Novosibirsk State University of Economics and Management.
“Our universities have been cooperating for a long time, and I see progress at the level of scientific research. The innovations that you generate hold the potential to be transformed into marketable products through various business entities, including the Novosibirsk region. Since our department actively cooperates with both entrepreneurs and logisticians in the field of transport and warehouse activities, I am looking for contacts that will connect us in these areas. I think that interesting points of interaction can be found here. Your developments and research can be offered through our packaging in business design and business planning to existing entrepreneurs.”
The design and analytical session continued with speeches by heads of departments involved in the implementation of basic policies of Altai State University.
Marina Kolbunova, Head of the Department for Quality Monitoring and Educational Initiatives, presented the acceleration program for supporting project teams of student initiatives for the formation of innovative products “Business Innovators: Altai-Asia”; Olga Vysotskaya, Director of the Center for the Development of Technological Entrepreneurship at Altai State University, spoke about the development of youth scientific and technological initiatives at Altai State University, the formation of interdisciplinary project teams and successful cases; Olga Kondratyeva, Director of the resource center for the Development of Civil Initiatives and Support of Socially Oriented NGOs of Altai Krai, presented successful cases of interaction between universities and NGOs and, together with Vladimir Kupin, Director of the Boiling Point of Altai State University, spoke about the possibilities of joint projects between the scientific departments of Altai State University and regional NGOs; Daria Kondratova, Head of the Youth Policy Department, spoke about social entrepreneurship as a successful start for the project from Rosmolodezh.
Vladimir Kupin, Director of the Boiling Point of Altai State University, held an open microphone on the topic “Advanced research and development of Altai State University units on end-to-end technologies and NTI markets,” where spoke Evgeniy Goskov, Chairman of the regional representative office of “Support of Russia.”
“Under the development program, every university sooner or later encounters the necessity for dialogue between basic processes, and the need to search for these same points of contact is formed. When transitioning towards an innovative development model, Altai State University confronted complex issues related to the development of entrepreneurship in the educational environment and monetization of staff’s innovations. Today’s design and analytical session marks our initial attempt to align the objectives of scientific, educational and youth policies, selecting key aspects for analyzing management activities,” evaluated the work of the session Alexey Vaganov, Deputy Vice-Rector for Research.
The design and analytical session finished with the online broadcast of the Entrepreneurial Boiling Point of the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics “Technocode” “DEMO-DAY VISA VERSA”, where representatives of the technology business spoke about the real-world challenges they are currently addressing.