On February 26-28, 2014, the HSE will host a conference on ‘The Role of the Humboldt Foundation in Consolidating and Developing Russian Science during the Transition’. Andrei Yakovlev, Director of the Institute for Industrial and Market Studies and the International Center for the Study of Institutions and Development, agreed to give an interview to the HSE News Service about the influence of the Humboldt Foundation on his own life and on Russian scientific life in general.