Scientists Assess the Effectiveness of Forest Fires Suppression in the Russian Regions
April officially marked the beginning of the peak forest fire season across Russia, and preventative measures have recently been discussed at the Ministry of the Russian Federation for Civil Defence, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters (also known as The Ministry of Emergency Situations, MChS) and at a meeting in which the President of the Russian Federation participated. Regions have already started taking measures to prevent forest fires, and a team of researchers from the Faculty of Economic Sciences of HSE University has proposed a mathematical model by which the effectiveness of these measures can be evaluated. Using this algorithm, they compared Russian regions in terms of the success of their firefighting activities. Details of the work have been published in the collection ‘Dynamics of Disasters: Impact, Risk, Resilience, and Solutions’.
Digital Transformation Requires Unconventional Solutions
Over the next ten years, Russia is expected to undertake a massive digitalization of its public services. The President has repeatedly talked about the need to actively implement artificial intelligence (AI) and big data analysis technologies. On January 11, the International Laboratory for Digital Transformation in Public Administration opened at the HSE Institute for Public Administration and Governance. Below, Laboratory Head Evgeny Styrin discusses what the implementation of digital resources means for citizens, how the government, society, and the business community are working together, and what some bad examples of digitalization are and how to fix them.
OECD Outlook Examines the Effects of the Pandemic on Science, Technology, and Innovation
Times of Crisis and Opportunity is the title of the OECD Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Outlook published in January. The document focuses on STI responses to the pandemic while assessing the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on science and technology. Mikhail Gershman, Deputy Director of the Centre of Science, Technology, Innovation and Information Policy, discusses the contribution of the Institute of Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge (ISSEK) to the Outlook and discusses some aspects of ISSEK’s long-standing partnership with OECD.
Global Restructuring: The World Community Prepares to Fight Climate Change
More than a hundred countries have already declared the achievement of ‘zero emissions with the exception of absorption’ to be their primary goal in the fight against climate change. For Russia, whose primary export is fossil fuels, the global rejection of hydrocarbons poses great risks. Experts discussed the issue at the research seminar, ‘Decarbonization as a Global Trend: Changing the Economic Landscape and Its Importance for Companies’, which was jointly organized by HSE University and the Association of European Businesses.
Managing Climate Risk: How to Adapt Regions to Changes
An applied research project being carried out by the HSE Laboratory for Economics of Climate Change uses the example of the Chechen Republic and the mountainous areas of Krasnodar Krai to create a model of climate risk evaluation and management for Russian regions. Laboratory heads Igor Makarov and Ilya Stepanov talk about the threats presented by global climate change, about whether the pandemic will slow it down, and why a multifaceted approach is essential.
Artificial Intelligence for Proactive Policy: A Letter from Leonid Gokhberg to ‘Nature’
As the situation with COVID-19 has shown, mistakes associated with insufficiently developed policy measures in medicine, science, education and other socially significant sectors of the economy are very costly for society. In the July issue of Nature, Leonid Gokhberg, First Vice Rector of HSE University and ISSEK Director, discussed the topic of the growing practice of making management decisions based on big data analysis.
The Chain of Life: How Russia is Integrated into Global Production
HSE experts have analyzed the position of Russian non-commodity sectors in global production and opportunities for their revitalization. The researchers believe that long-term sustainable growth of its non-commodity exports can be achieved by repositioning and including them in the global value chain at some more advanced stages than the supply of raw materials and semi-finished products.
13 Trends in Bio-economy: What Does the Near Future Hold for People, Business, and Science?
The bio-economy encompasses the production of renewable biological resources and their conversion into food, energy, goods, and services. Alexander Chulok, Head of the HSE ISSEK Centre of Scientific and Technological Forecasts, spoke to RBK and shared his predictions for the development of the bio-economy in the context of 13 global trends.
The Russian Economy’s Prospects: Experts Show Moderate Pessimism
HSE University’s Centre of Development Institute has conducted its regular quarterly survey of experts’ projections for the Russian economy in the 2020–2021 period. According to the consensus forecast, Russia’s GDP will decrease by 4.3% this year. This seems to be a more optimistic outlook compared, for example, to the IMF’s forecast, which suggests a 5.5% decline.
HSE Experts Analyze the Lifting of Quarantine Restrictions in 30 Countries
In a recent report, HSE experts evaluated the world’s 14 countries hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic based on data (including the number of recorded deaths) from May 1, 2020 or later. The report also examined 16 other countries whose experience was considered significant. While refraining from making generalizations, experts nonetheless noted that leaders in Europe and the United States have generally not responded to the situation as effectively as their Asian counterparts. Africa, meanwhile, follows its own course, while the situation in Brazil is worse.