A modern university is not merely a venue for research and education as separate activities; it must strive to seamlessly integrate the two. Our university is committed to achieving this balance. Today, SPbU stands as a globally significant research hub, encompassing dozens of research centres and laboratories, as well as the Research Park with its innovative equipment and technological capabilities. Open access to the Research Park attracts leading research groups from around the world.
Research
-
St Petersburg University is one of Russia’s leading research centres. It currently houses over 15 laboratories, some established through the Russian government’s mega-grant programme and others funded through our own grant schemes. Grants are awarded through an open competition, chaired by our leading academics. Researchers from all over the world can apply for access to the SPbU Research Park facilities, the scale of which is unparalleled in Russia.
-
St Petersburg University is granted the right to independently establish its own guidelines for thesis defence and to award the degrees of Candidate and Doctor of Sciences, without the involvement of the Higher Attestation Commission. In 2013, the University reinstated its own standard for awarding Doctor of Science degrees (PhD SPbU), which had been discontinued in 1917. The defence process is fully transparent and open to the public. Video recordings of the defences and the full texts of the dissertations are available online in open access.
-
A wide range of resources is available for research: the equipment of the SPbU Research Park, the collections of the Gorky Scientific Library, a repository of all research publications of the University, materials and results of the Centre for Applied Research and Development, the resources of the Botanical Garden, data of the Centre for Regional Studies, services of the SPbU Publishing House, its publishing grant competitions.
Research Park
In 2020, the Research Park had 1,743 ongoing projects, processed 40,497 requests and examined 119,186 samples. The number of WoS and Scopus publications using the equipment operated by the SPbU Research Park team was 623.
Research Park equipment
The SPbU Research Park boasts state-of-the-art research equipment valued at over RUB 6 billion. Researchers can gain access to this equipment by following our guidelines.
Research centres and laboratories
Today, SPbU has more than 50 research centres, institutes and laboratories. Research projects, led by eminent scientists, focus on key areas of science, including biomedicine, nanotechnology and many others.
Our services
- Centralised research management system and researcher portal — Pure
- Research Park application system — ResearchIMS
- Open access archive
- Scientific library
- Research Park Cloud Service
- Software developed by the Centre for Algorithmic Biotechnology
- Management system for sociology research topics
- Ethics Committee application system
Research Park additional services
Megagrants
St Petersburg University conducts competitions to establish research laboratories under the guidance of leading scientists through the SPbU Megagrants Competition.
Competitions for research funding
The competition is open to teams from Russian and international research and educational institutions, as well as research and development organisations, with at least 50% of the participants being early career researchers.
Postdoctoral fellowships
The University organises competitions to support scientific research — postdoctoral fellowships, which are open to both Russian and foreign citizens. Today young scientists from Canada, China, France, Germany, Lithuania, Morocco, Spain, Ukraine and Canada work at the SPbU.
Ongoing competitions
SPbU regularly announces open competitions for research grants, which are open to anyone who meets the competition criteria, whether or not they are employed by the SPbU.