The partnership brings together the research and innovation capacity of one of the country’s leading economics universities with the experience and resources of the companies that belong to the NAS Association.
The agreement covers the entire range of new autonomous systems — from unmanned aircraft and highly automated transport to industrial robotics, uncrewed vessels, satellite systems and artificial intelligence.
Joint work will focus on four key areas:
Research and technology development. Plekhanov Russian University of Economics will initiate research on the industry’s priority tasks. The results will be passed on to member companies of the Association, which can quickly test them on the market and scale them up.
Turning ideas into products. The university will actively promote its developments and expertise among the Association’s members. The aim is not to publish papers in journals but to bring real products to market.
Training people from the ground up. Members of the Association invite students and postgraduates of the university for work placements and internships at their high-technology production sites, where they receive targeted training in a real industrial setting. This is how the industry gains managers and engineers who already understand how it works from the inside.
Joint events and analysis. The partners will hold conferences, seminars, roundtables and demonstrations. The university and the Association will develop a shared position on the technological and economic challenges facing autonomous systems.
Russia’s autonomous systems industry is in the middle of taking shape. It needs not only engineers but also managers who understand how to turn innovation into a profitable business — and that is the expertise of economists and analysts.
University research, in turn, often lacks a connection to real production: it receives commissions blindly, without seeing where its developments will finally be used. This agreement closes that gap.
Dmitry Afanasyev, Chairman of the Board of the NAS Association: “Confident leadership in the autonomous systems market requires promising developments by research teams to reach the real economy quickly. Our partnership with Plekhanov University is aimed at a concrete result: we take breakthrough developments and help commercialise them through the Association’s members. In return, we open a direct route for students and postgraduates to intern at genuine high-technology production sites.”