Research & Expertise news at HSE University

In October, a two-day seminar entitled ‘Ageing and frailty in Norway and Russia’ was held by HSE University’s International Laboratory for Population and Health.  In addition to purely demographic results concerning the changing age structure of the population and growing life expectancy, most presentations were devoted to the comparative assessment of physical and cognitive status among elderly people, cardiovascular aging, as well as social and medical support for the elderly. We spoke with the organizers and participants of the seminar about their research findings and the implications for society and public health.

HSE University has won in a joint nomination by the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) international rankings agency and the company Elsevier. The award was presented as part of the forum ‘Development Trends in the Social Sciences and Humanities: Global Challenges and Best Russian Practices’ hosted by the State Academic University for the Humanities. Irina Karelina, Senior Director for Strategic Planning at HSE University, accepted the award and noted that the university’s success is largely down to its consistent personnel and research policies, as well as its support for young people.

A team of researchers from Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences (Leipzig) has discovered that the age-related decline in bilateral anti-phase movement is linked to differences in alpha and beta neural activity. Among the researchers was Vadim Nikulin, Leading Research Fellow of the Centre for Cognition & Decision Making at HSE University.

This year’s field season is over, and despite the difficulties caused by the pandemic, archaeologists from the Centre of Classical and Oriental Archaeology at the Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies (IOCS) were able to undertake their scheduled expeditions to Italy, Turkey, and Abkhazia. The Centre is the only Russian institution that conducts regular archaeological research in the Mediterranean region—the heart of ancient civilization, where neither Soviet nor Russian classical archaeologists have ever worked before.

The 2nd International Conference on Experience Economy: Museum, Event, and Tourism Management will be held at HSE University in Perm from October 20–22. The Ministry of Education and Science of the Perm Region will be the general partner of the conference. The HSE News Service highlights some of the key speakers and sessions of the event.

Volume of R&D funding and number of Scopus-indexed publications of the BRICS countries in total already exceed those of the EU-total and the United States. These metrics have opportunity for further growth if the five developing countries strengthen scientific cooperation with other countries from Global South that have significant growth potential. Researchers from the Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge Alexander Sokolov, Sergey Shashnov, and Maxim Kotsemir analysed the opportunities for research collaboration within these clusters of countries along with the obstacles standing in the way of greater cooperation.

Storing the data collected during folklore expeditions in a convenient and accessible way is not an easy task. As a solution, HSE researchers studying folk traditions have created an Electronic Folklore Archive. Anastasia Smirnova, research assistant and, until recently, staff member of the HSE Faculty of Humanities Laboratory for Theoretical and Field Folklore Studies, where the electronic archive was designed and developed, talks about how it was created and why the skills of collecting and digitising folklore are so important, particularly at the outset of one's academic career.

The conference on Philosophy and Culture in Time of Pandemics ran from September 30 to 2 October 2021. It was divided into seven sessions held in a hybrid format. The organizers and participants discussed major topics such as social transformation during the pandemic, the role of mass media in shaping perceptions of the pandemic, and the epistemological and ethical issues that have arisen as a result.