Russian Science Day is celebrated annually on February 8. It was on this day in 1724 that Peter the Great signed a decree on the establishment of the Academy or Societet of Arts and Sciences. The Russian Academy of Sciences turns 300 years old in 2024.
The SSU researchers are actively developing world-class technologies and creating promising developments applicable in medicine, electronics, chemical industry, and other fields.
In 2023, Saratov State University entered the top-20 universities for the implementation of the Priority 2030 programme. SSU is implementing the following strategic projects – Technologies of Personalised Medicine, ICT-Electronics, Chemistry and New Materials, and Teachers in the Educational Paradigm. Due to the high results of the scientists' work, the funding for the entire development programme has been increased.
The stratprojects include dozens of cutting-edge developments and research. The participants of the Personalised Medicine Technologies project are solving the problems of late diagnosis of oncological, cardiovascular, and endocrine diseases, as well as the ineffectiveness and toxicity of common treatment methods. The SSU scientists are developing the technology for removing toxins from the brain, the methods for searching for cancer cells in the blood and detecting inflammation in the body, the methods to assess the authenticity of medicines, the systems for remotely controlled drug delivery, and the new methods of theranostics.
The project is dedicated to the development of information and communication technologies, the production of a new element base of micro- and nanoelectronics, magnonics and spintronics. The scientists are solving the problems in digital technologies and Big Data. Thus, they are creating new types of media, material media, as well as the methods of organising calculations and methods of generating, transmitting, storing, and processing information. They have developed the nanoscale magnetoelectric chips, the world's only composite for 5G-communication devices, the carbon nanomaterial with unique electrical properties, the new models of two-dimensional hybrid materials for high-precision UV-radiation detectors, and the new technology for creating electrical conductors.
The scientific groups implementing the Chemistry and New Materials project are creating new promising multifunctional substances and offer innovative solutions for industry, mechanical engineering, agriculture, medicine, and ecology. Due to the participation in the project, our scientists are solving the problems of transition to a carbon neutral and post-carbon economy and resource-saving technologies for processing raw materials, as well as digital chemistry. Their numerous achievements include the study of the biological activity of chitosan asparaginate nanoparticles, the creation of a new material for pavement – phosphogypsum, the nanosensors to reduce the side effects of chemotherapy, as well as the development of the new variants of lithium-ion batteries and the stable shells for quantum dots.
As part of the Teachers in the Educational Paradigm project, the concept of continuous training of school teachers has been developed, the research-to-education festival Week of Pedagogical Education and the student teaching skills contest Step into the Profession are held, the Consilium Young Teachers Support Centre has been launched, and the Pedagogical Classroom for high school students – future teachers has been opened.
Learn more about the projects of the Priority 2030 programme here.
Saratov State University regularly wins grant contests of the Ministry of Higher Education and Science of Russia, Russian Science Foundation, the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, the Russian Geographical Society, the Foundation for Advanced Studies, and the Idea scientific centre. The SSU scientists receive grants and scholarships from the President of Russia and megagrants from the government of Russia. The total amount of grant funding for research in 2023 amounted to almost 537 million roubles.
For the first time in 2023, the Smart Sleep laboratory and the Magnetic Metamaterials Laboratory received financing as part of the RSF contest for Conducting research by world-class scientific laboratories as part of implementing the priorities of scientific and technological development of the Russian Federation. The amount of funding by the Saratov State University Project Fund amounted to 30 million roubles for each laboratory.
With the support of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Smart Sleep Laboratory is implementing the project Pilot technology of photomodulation of the immune system of the animal and human brain: innovative strategies in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. The research is led by Oksana Semyachkina-Glushkovskaya. The Magnetic Metamaterials Laboratory received financing for the project Nanoscale multifunctional devices of magnonic logic and reservoir calculations on spin waves in periodic magnetic heterostructures. The project leader is Professor of the Department of Nonlinear Physics, the Institute of Physics, Maria Morozova.
Last year, the SSU scientists won the RSF contest for Russian-Chinese scientific projects – The development of optical methods for studying glycation and hemodynamics of biological tissues in diabetes mellitus (head – Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Valerii Tuchin) and Photosleep therapy of traumatic brain injuries in humans and mice (head – Chair of the Department of Human and Animal Physiology, Faculty of Biology, Oksana Semyachkina-Glushkovskaya).
All university institutes and faculties contribute to science and publication. In 2023, the SSU researchers prepared 463 papers based on Scopus data and 3,290 papers based on RSCI data. In recent years, there has been a tendency for the SSU articles to be cited more often. According to Scopus, in 2023, the university Hirsch index was 108. Eight scientists are in the top-2% of the most cited in the world.
Youth research centres are actively working at SSU. These are the Digital Integrative Bioengineering Systems Interfaculty Technological Fablab complex of laboratories, the Gazpromneft – SSU Centre, the Youth Research Office, the Student Design Agency at Geology College, the Rubezh-SSU Student Design Agency, the education-to-practice classroom from Saratovorgsintez LLC, and the specialised classroom for the development of computer training complexes.
This year, the scientists are also having significant tasks. The university is going to continue developing networks of youth laboratories, create new consortia in conducting research, organise internships for scientists in leading world and Russian research centres, bring applied developments to the market, as well as expand grant activities and cooperation with innovative businesses in the region and the country.
