VTB Starts Funding Comparative Social Research at HSE
This year VTB is launching the Endowment for Comparative Social Research at HSE. The endowment will make it possible to invest 10-20 million roubles in research each year. The exact amount will depend on trust management of the endowment assets, implemented by VTB Capital Investment Management.
The HSE Laboratory for Comparative Social Research, led by renowned sociologist and political scientist Ronald Inglehart, will receive funding from the endowment. Until the endowment has been formally created, VTB will co-finance the laboratory’s current activities.
This cooperation with HSE is an important part of VTB’s strategy, as it follows a government initiative to attract leading world scholars. The laboratory was created thanks to mega grants issued by the Russian Government in 2010.
In addition, given HSE’s impressive performance in the QS world subject ranking for sociology (151-200 place in 2015; 101-150 place in 2016; 51-100 in 2017), VTB notes that it considers it vital to support HSE’s leading research field, in order to further strengthen the opposition of Russian science and education on a global scale.
This support from business partners and HSE trustees is also helps provide talented young people, including researchers from other countries, with the conditions they need to build scientific careers in Russia, at a level that is comparable to global standards.