This year, HSE has supported the founding of 10 new Research and Teaching Laboratories (RTLs) in various fields, from cognitive psychology and computer modeling, to international justice and economics of sports.
This year’s competition was organized in a new format and received 41 applications.
In the first stage of the competition, the applications were assessed by expert academic councils at the faculties. They recommended 22 applications to move through to the second stage, which was organized as a public presentation. A university-wide competition committee decided on the final results.
10 teams from five faculties were announced the winners of the competition.
*Marie Arsalidou’s laboratory will be founded in 2019, providing that her current Research and Study Group project, implemented as part of the HSE Academic Fund programme, receives a positive expert evaluation.
According to Alexander Balyshev, HSE Director for Basic Research, the new competition format enables faculties to detect and support the areas that are a priority, to better understand the competencies available at the faculties, and to get to know the teams which are ready to be more active in research and are willing to work with students.
The following procedure of public defense provides the entire university academic community to become acquainted with the research agenda at various faculties, and find collaborators for joint projects. The students who attended the presentations gained an understanding of how they can be involved in the new laboratories’ activities and their research agenda.
Research and Teaching Laboratories appeared at HSE in 2006 and today there are over 20. They bring together young instructors, graduate students, and undergraduates. RTLs are a tool to help talented young people make their first steps in research. They learn to articulate their research goals and write academic papers.
One of the essential activities carried out by RTLs is a research seminar which is held on a regular basis and is open to everyone. These seminars are the laboratories’ ‘trademark’ events.
Many of the RTLs founded in previous years evolved into international research laboratories and centres.
‘Research institutes and centres are focused on high academic achievements and have fewer opportunities to work with students, to identify their individual talents, and to involve them in the academic community. This is why RTLs consistute a very important format of student involvement in research, and the university considers it to be a very valuable investment. The ten laboratories are an exciting opportunity to bring some new names into academic research’, said Alexander Balyshev.