HSE Development Programme until 2030

The HSE Office of Analytics and Data Management, together with the Visual Communications Unit, has developed a new Facts and Figures about HSE University page on the HSE website. In addition, all university staff now have access to a dashboard with the updated indicators of the Priority 2030 programme.

Researchers at HSE University and the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IBCh RAS) have studied how the immune system functions in multiple sclerosis (MS), a disease in which the body's own antibodies attack its nerve fibres. By comparing blood samples from MS patients and healthy individuals, scientists have discovered that the immune system in MS patients can mistake viral proteins for those of nerve cells. Several key proteins have also been identified that could serve as new biomarkers for the disease and aid in its diagnosis. The study has been published in  Frontiers in Immunology. The research was conducted with support from the Russian Science Foundation.

The importance of geographical science is increasing, as is the demand for education in this field. Since 2020, application numbers for Bachelor’s programmes at HSE University’s Faculty of Geography and Geoinformation Technology have climbed by 30%, while interest in Master’s programmes has also expanded, with applications up 10–15%. Nikolay Kurichev, Dean of the Faculty, spoke about this at a press conference hosted by MIA Rossiya Segodnya.

Researchers at the HSE Centre for Language and Brain were among the first to use transcranial alternating current stimulation to investigate whether it can influence the acquisition of new words. Although the authors of the experiment have not yet found a link between brain stimulation and word acquisition, they believe that adjusting the stimulation parameters may yield different results in the future. The study has been published in Language, Cognition and Neuroscience.

The first international joint summer school of the Vysokovsky Graduate School of Urbanism (GSU) at both the HSE Faculty of Urban and Regional Development and Brest State Pushkin University (BrSU), hosted by BrSU, has come to a close. The programme focused on studying buffer zones along the railway lines encircling the city centre. Participants included students from the GSU’s Urban Planning degree programme, as well as students from BrSU and Brest State Technical University.

HSE University and MTS Web Services (MWS) have announced the launch of a series of joint research initiatives in the field of artificial intelligence technologies. These efforts aim to develop innovative solutions in cybersecurity, multimodal content generation, and big data analysis. The project’s leading institution is the HSE Tikhonov Moscow Institute of Electronics and Mathematics (HSE MIEM), under the overall coordination of the HSE AI Research Centre.

In the Moscow Region, HSE’s country complex located on the banks of the Ruza Reservoir and bearing the same name Ruza, has reopened its doors. Faculties and other university departments can now apply on the complex’s website (in Russian) to hold events there in September.

A team from HSE University–St Petersburg has returned from an expedition to the Himalayas. Together with colleagues from the universities of Delhi and Jammu, they studied the local mountain communities of the northern part of the famous mountain system.

Registration for the BRICS International School: New Generation, one of the leading international educational projects aimed at prospective leaders interested in the agenda of global development and cooperation within the framework of BRICS, has opened.

Neural interfaces developed by scientists at HSE University in collaboration with clinicians make it possible to communicate with the brain and decode its signals. The use of such interfaces opens up opportunities to stimulate brain activity, restore and normalise muscle control in patients who have suffered a stroke, heart attack, or other neurological disorders, and support the rehabilitation of individuals with traumatic brain injuries or limb loss. Alexey Ossadtchi, Director of the Centre for Bioelectric Interfaces at the HSE Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, discusses the centre and its work.