Rector Ilshat Gafurov received Badge of Honor “Knowledge of the Future” from the Minister of Education and Science of Russia Olga Vasilyeva on 14th December.

The conference included a plenary session called “Cooperation of Science and Business: Results and Prospects”. Minister Vasilyeva, Rector Gafurov, and Vice-Rector Danis Nurgaliev were among the contributors.

“Thanks to state policy, the volume of research within the walls of university laboratories has increased more than fivefold over the past decade. The number of researchers has reached 46,000, which is comparable to the non-educational academic sector, and 63% of them are young scientists. If we talk about the cooperation of universities and business, then an investment development program is an important tool, and I am very grateful to our universities which participate in all investment projects, and the level of involvement in these projects is increasing,” said Olga Vasilyeva.

In this regard, an important part of the event was the summarization of the first results of the convergence of science and industry within the framework of the Russian Science and Technology Development Strategy 2030 adopted by the President of Russia in December 2016. An award ceremony was held to commend those who have shown best performance during the year. Kazan University was among the ten winners. The badge of honor was given to Dr. Gafurov.

"Innovations of the Future" prizes were also distributed among the companies which showed notable achievements in cooperating with academia. KAMAZ, KFU’s long-time partner, was among those awarded.

Vice-Rector Nurgaliev contributed to the discussion about research projects within the P218 framework (a special executive order of the Russian Government covering federal grants for university research). In particular, he said that the KFU has submitted about 60 project applications and has won in 9 cases. The projects themselves, though very diverse, often have an important common trait - they are aimed at import substitution. Having accumulated some experience of such work, the University already sees qualitative changes.

"We’ve got real opportunities to carry out really popular, big and long-term projects for the companies. The awareness about the University among potential customers and employers for our graduates has increased, and we have real results which we can show. Previously, companies did not believe that the university could carry the research all through to a specific product. This is one of the main achievements of P218. On the other hand, we have changed fundamentally; we now believe that we can create an innovative product and move it to mass production," said he.

Strong ties with companies and an established business dialogue with them allow us to improve the competencies of employees, provide support to young scientists, teachers, and students, to open and equip new infrastructural facilities. Thus, a synergistic effect is achieved, and along with the development of business and the overall economic environment, the university is moving forward, creating the ground for the emergence of new promising ideas.

In this, however, all the participants of yesterday's discussions agreed - it is through the joint efforts of the three parties, including industry, science, and the state, that the strategic goals can be achieved.