Research & Expertise news at HSE University

The first International Conference on Social Neurology in Environmentally Sound Conditions, organized by the International Laboratory of Social Neurobiology of the Institute of Cognitive Neurosciences and Aalto University will be held online on June 21-23, 2021. The HSE News Service spoke with conference organisers and some of the key speakers in the run-up to the conference about its agenda and some research highlights.

Less than a year ago, the Faculty of Humanities at HSE University launched four large-scale projects, bringing together representatives of different disciplines from different departments and campuses of the University. Their goals, content, staffing and expected results were presented at a meeting of the Rector’s Council. Other departments have been tasked with developing their own large-scale projects, which HSE University will be able to include in its application for the ‘Priority 2030’ programme.

Researchers have yet to evaluate the entire impact of COVID on mortality. However, it is now possible to discuss the first results of some initial studies. The HSE International Laboratory for Population and Health held a webinar ‘The First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Russia (April 2020—March 2021)’. Although the Russian total mortality rate increased during that period, it was Slovakia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, and Poland that topped the list. The lowest growth in the mortality rate was observed in South Korea. Meanwhile, researchers have failed to detect a lockdown-induced baby boom anywhere in the world.

What fields employees can hope to get high salaries in? What is the return on higher education? How is life expectancy related to retirement age? These and some other issues were discussed by experts at the First Conference ‘Labour Market: Demographic Challenges and Human Capital’ organized by the HSE Human Capital Multidisciplinary Research Centre.

The dazzling evolution of digital technologies is changing the face of the economy and the social sphere. Some Russian sectors — such as the manufacturing industry and financial services — are well-aligned with the global trend, while some others are lagging behind, thereby creating risks for the country's economy. A team of HSE ISSEK researchers examined current approaches to measuring digital transformation and focused specifically on its uptake by a few key sectors of the Russian economy and services, benchmarking them against the global situation. The study findings were presented in the report 'Digital Transformation of Industries: Starting Conditions and Priorities' at the XXII April International Academic Conference co-organised by HSE University and Sberbank.

The results of the competition for the best academic and popular science papers in Russian by HSE staff members have been announced. This competition is a new one, organized by the university to celebrate the Year of Science and Technology. 257 applications were submitted, with 35 winners announced in the academic category and 30 in the popular science one. The winners were announced on Alexander Pushkin’s birthday. The organizers plan to make the competition annual, potentially opening it up for all Russian and international researchers writing papers and involved in science communication in Russian.

The HSE Centre for Fundamental Sociology has recently held ‘Logica Socialis’, an open social theory seminar. Andrei Korbut, Senior Research Fellow at the HSE Centre for Fundamental Sociology, presented his report entitled ‘COVID-19 as an interactional phenomenon: People’s behaviour in public places during the pandemic’.

On September 15-17, 2021, Kazan will host the 24th TCI Global Conference, one of the main international events in the field of regional competitiveness and cluster development. The conference will be held in cooperation with HSE University.