Editorial

Dear readers, members of the Triple Helix Association and their colleagues!

Currently, a COVID19 pandemic has erupted in the world, the number of cases continues to grow, and governments are forced to take unprecedented measures to resist the virus and eliminate possible economic consequences. While people have to physically isolate themselves, communities, including international academic ones, which are able to continue their activities in online formats and actively participate in finding ways out of this situation come to the forefront.

The International Triple Helix Association belongs to such communities, and we are pleased to present you the current Helice issue, which presents a number of THA initiatives aimed to find answers to the challenges facing all areas of our lives today.

In this situation, it becomes obvious that the way out of the crisis can only be achieved jointly by the government, business and academia, because this crisis affected all aspects of our lives. Therefore, the role of the Triple Helix model becomes extremely important.

Education faced the challenge of moving to online formats – not every institution at any level of education was ready for such a transition, and online tools were not safe enough in terms of access to students’ personal data. SMEs, due to the lack of a “rainy-day” fund, were not even ready for a two-week isolation. Therefore, without additional support measures, most SMEs will not be able to recover after quarantine measures have ended. The government, in its turn, is faced with the challenge of developing these measures for SMEs so that they are as effective as possible, while at the same time allowing countries to avoid serious economic consequences.

One of the answers to the challenges facing the education system and SMEs is to stimulate entrepreneurial initiative among students, including on the basis of existing experience. Olga Kovbasyuk and Angelina Dolgaya of Kant Baltic Federal University share this experience in their article “New Entrepreneurial Education as Tool to Enhance Students’ Self-Development: KrausLab Case ”.

At a time when the traditional way of life and economy are under serious challenges, innovation sectors related to end-to-end technologies such as IT, AI, machine learning and others, come to the fore. And the large enterprises of mature sectors of the economy also face the challenge of how to quickly go through the digitalization phase, while maintaining and even increasing production volumes. The correct industrial policy can also help here, which will need to be synchronized in many ways with innovation policy. Prof. Michael Kahn writes about the difficulties and possibilities of such measures in his article “Innovation policy and industrial policy. Speaking with different voices? ”.

As you can read further, the next two Helice issues will be dedicated to how we, as an international academic community, can contribute to maintaining the quality of life and getting out of the COVID crisis. Your contribution is very important to us, so we are waiting for your articles until May 28 for inclusion in the June issue, and until August 29 for inclusion in the September issue.

During this period, we must first trust knowledge and maintain networks that accelerate their spread. And a way out of the crisis will be found only in the widespread diffusion of partnerships between universities, industry and local governments.

For further information, please contact Liana Kobzeva (Editor in Chief) at 05.liana(at)gmail.com , or Sheila Forbes (Managing Editor) at sheila.forbes(at)strath.ac.uk.

We sincerely hope that COVID19 and its consequences will not affect you and your families, and we look forward to hearing from you soon!

Liana Kobzeva
(Editor in Chief)

March 2020

Published by the Triple Helix Association – ISSN 2281-4515

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