HSE University and University of Technology Malaysia Launch Mirror Lab

HSE University in St Petersburg and University of Technology Malaysia (UTM) have launched a mirror lab in social entrepreneurship. The agreement was signed in Kuala Lumpur on November 9 during a meeting of the Joint Russian-Malaysian Commission on Economic, Scientific, Technical and Cultural Cooperation. The document was signed by Anna Tyshetskaya, Director of HSE University-St Petersburg, and Rosli Illias, UTM Deputy Vice Chancellor for Research & Innovation.
A document commemorating the launch of the mirror lab was signed by the co-chairs of the commission—Valery Falkov, Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, and Mohamed Khaled Nordin, Minister of Higher Education of Malaysia.
The Russian-Malaysian social entrepreneurship lab ‘Reflecting Impact: The Cross-Country Analysis for Social Entrepreneurship in Malaysia and Russia’ is based at the Act Lab at UTM University’s AHIBS Business School and the Laboratory for Reputation Management in Education at HSE University-St Petersburg. The lab will include special centres of expertise where scientists, researchers and students can take part in the work. The mirror lab will serve as a platform for conducting research and developing support programmes for social entrepreneurs. The laboratory team will also develop a guidebook on best practices and cases in the field of social entrepreneurship, as well as approaches to solving problems in this area. A major focus of the lab’s work will be interaction with government agencies, non-governmental organisations, corporations and public institutions. Professors and students from HSE University and UTM will be able to work on exploring market innovations and developing strategies in terms of social entrepreneurship. The lab will publish guides on social entrepreneurship in English and Russian.

‘This is the first mirror lab to be established at HSE in an international format. HSE University-St Petersburg is a pioneer in this field—previously, mirror labs had only been created with other Russian universities,’ said Anna Tyshetskaya, Director of HSE University in St Petersburg, ‘Our international partners have supported and accepted the format of international mirror labs. It allows joint research to be institutionalised in a very rapid way. In the near future, we plan to open two more mirror labs with our partners from the Asian-Pacific region.’
Following the signing ceremony and document exchange, the Russian and Malaysian delegations visited the joint laboratory located at the UTM campus in the AHIBS Business School building.
An agreement on scientific and educational cooperation was signed between HSE University and University of Technology Malaysia (UTM) in spring 2023. It aims to strengthen and promote research and technical cooperation, including student exchange, joint research, participation in scientific events and mutual support of the universities’ research centres.
Translated from Russian by Valeria Bogatikova, bachelor’s student of Foreign Languages and Intercultural Communication, intern at the HSE University English website team
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