Campus Is a Promising Innovation Ecosystem

11:49, June 28, 2023

Members of the University's Supervisory Board inspected the progress of the project for the new UrFU campus [photo report]

For the first time the meeting of the Supervisory Board of the UrFU was held on the Novokoltsovsky campus. The leaders were shown the facilities of the first stage: the Palace of Water Sports, the Medical Center, the Community and Business Center, and the dormitories. The members of the Supervisory Board highly appreciated the level of readiness to receive the first students of the university in September.

"It is not by chance that in recent years we have set ourselves the goal of making the Ural Federal University one of the best higher education institutions in the country and the world. It is impossible to achieve such an ambitious goal without modern facilities. With the new campus, new public spaces, new centers and classrooms that will be built in the second stage of construction, the university will have one of the best material resources in the country. This means that with a serious research base and teaching staff it will become a point of attraction for young people not only from our region, from Russia, but from all over the world," said Arkady Chernetsky, member of the UrFU Supervisory Board and First Deputy Chairman of the Sverdlovsk Region Legislative Assembly, after the presentation of the campus.

The campus environment is now the subject of extensive research and applied development as part of the "Human Wellbeing in Digital Transformation" strategic project of the Priority 2030 program. Research teams of urbanists, psychologists, sociologists, economists and cultural scientists are working to create a comfortable living, learning, creative and self-development environment for students. By 2025, when the academic buildings of the Engineering School of Information Technologies, Telecommunications and Control Systems, the Graduate School of Economics and Management, and the Ural Federal University Lyceum (Specialized Education and Research Center) will be built, 13 laboratories will be created on the campus and equipped with modern equipment.

Timur Ufimtsev, General Director of Sinara-Development, noted that the concept of the campus provides an opportunity for students to study, do research and work.

"The third component is the implementation of the project to create the Cosmos IT Park in the immediate vicinity of the student campus. The first phase of the park will cover 30 thousand square meters on the territory of 16 hectares. There will be not only office, but also industrial premises. As a result, a unique location will be created in the Novokoltsovsky area, which will have no analogues not only in the region, but also in Russia," he said.

The Supervisory Board instructed the Rectorate to finalize the transportation system between the new campus and the academic buildings in the city center as soon as possible. The Ekaterinburg administration has already decided to change four city bus routes by September and add a stop at the new campus. The university will operate shuttles to transport students and faculty. Rail service will be adjusted to allow students to use the city's electric train.

In honor of the completion of the first stage of the campus, members of the Supervisory Board, representatives of the Rectorate, students of the Ural Federal University and employees of Sinara-Development planted an avenue of linden trees next to one of the dormitories. With its compact oval crown and slender trunks, the avenue will become the dominant feature of the campus landscape.

The construction of the UrFU campus is being carried out by order of the President of the Russian Federation within the framework of the national project "Science and Universities". Today the UrFU campus already has a community center and a medical center, a training field with athletic tracks, and 8,500-bed dormitories will be put into operation by the end of June.

The news article was translated by UrFU International Marketing Office. 
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