During his press-conference in ITAR-TASS (13 August, 2014), Mikhail Fedoruk spoke about the university achievements under the program 鈥�5-100鈥� on increasing the international competitiveness of NSU and outlined the plans.
The program of global competitiveness enhancement of Russian universities among global leading research and education centers started in October 2013, when the participating universities had their roadmaps approved. Fourteen institutions were initially selected on a competitive basis to obtain federal funding, with NSU getting about 1.4 billion rubles during 2 years.
NSU is steadily advancing according to the roadmap. The movement is directed by the so-called strategic initiatives which include development of advanced educational programs, especially in promising research and business areas, selection of young talents at all the levels, work on international recognition of the university, etc.
鈥淲e have done a lot to increase our scientometric indicators. By creating joint laboratories in collaboration with Novosibirsk research institutes, we tried to involve all the scientists actively engaged in research. The total number of such laboratories now is 32, and they were selected according to their scientometric indicators. The challenge for most Russian universities in having not very high positions in international rankings now is a low citation index. Our work has already brought important visible benefits. According to the number of articles per member of faculty, NSU outworked all the Russian universities including MSU in the previous year. As for the number of the articles cited, NSU has drawn ahead of Saint Petersburg State University in the famous international database 芦Web of Science禄. Now NSU is steady on its positions, which are high enough,鈥� specified the Rector.
In addition, NSU has entered 11 collaborations on high energy physics and 2 on biosciences. Participating in such scaled scientific projects has made the university more noticeable internationally and increased the citation index.
The university is also engaged in a number of projects aimed at increasing the publishing activity of the staff and the citation ratio. For instance, NSU is going to establish 鈥渕irror鈥� laboratories. We are about to know the results of the competition for creating such laboratories on mathematics, and by the end of the year we plan to open 5-6 鈥渕irror鈥� laboratories with the involvement of prominent foreign or Russian scientists, including NSU expats, of course. These laboratories are to conduct research in the fields of mathematics, archaeology, theoretical physics, biology, etc.
Another competition organized by NSU was held among flagship projects. The two winners deal with physics (namely, photonics) and genetic research. These projects are to help publish scientific research articles with an extremely high impact-factor in such journals as Nature, Science, etc.
鈥淣SU may soon become an integration ground consolidating all the research institutes of Novosibirsk Scientific Center. We plan to develop and support big interdisciplinary projects in collaboration with the institutes.鈥�
鈥淢oreover, we are going to develop biomedicine, and our newly constructed building will house a teaching hospital for the Medicine Department. We plan to buy advanced diagnostic equipment for it and hope this hospital will become a center for clinical research. The hospital is to be completed and equipped in 2015,鈥� Mikhail Fedoruk declared hand on the issue.
The program of global competitiveness enhancement has also allowed us to improve the campus infrastructure. We are spending about 20% of funding for repair works. Now the main university building, the laboratory building and dormitories are under reconstruction. We are changing their utility networks and infrastructure, plumbing equipment, repairing the old sports center, canteen and Physics Mathematics School.
Rounding out his talk, the Rector mentioned the coming anniversary of NSU. 鈥淲e are celebrating the university anniversary on 26-28 September. The celebration program is heavy and varied. It includes the official part, round tables on NSU development, sports events, etc. You can take it for granted that numerous entertainment events are included, for example, a joint performance of the famous university humorous clubs Kvant, KBRD and Maximin. The agenda of the second Congress of NSU graduates, which is organized in the frameworks of the celebration, includes creating a fully functional endowment in the amount of 1 billion rubles as the main point.鈥�
Reference: A 芦mirror禄 laboratory is a laboratory headed by a scientist who has a similar research base in another scientific center. Actually, he duplicates it at NSU. The Head of the laboratory, under the terms of the competition, is to work in Novosibirsk for at least two months per year and, in addition to doing his research, is to give a course for students. The laboratory staff are also supposed to supervise NSU postgraduates and students.
