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General wealth levels in Eastern Europe and Central Asia have been improving since 2012 — poverty has been decreasing. But due to COVID, global poverty levels, including those of these regions, may increase considerably for the first time in two decades. Samuel Freije-Rodriguez, Lead Economist at World Bank, talked about this at the XXII April Conference organized by HSE University and Sberbank.

The competition for promising young researchers is intensifying around the world, and spending on preparing future generations of highly qualified specialists is on the rise. This is happening against a backdrop of digitalisation, which is creating a new digital inequality. For example, a quarter of the adult population in Russia does not possess any digital skills and does not use the Internet. These and other topics were discussed by participants of a round table held during the XXII April International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development organised by HSE University and Sberbank.

Many national governments have responded to the sharp rise in poverty during the pandemic with new social support programmes, including direct cash payments. During a joint seminar between the HSE Institute for Social Policy and the World Bank held as part of work conducted by the Human Capital Multidisciplinary Research Centre,experts discussed approaches that have been implemented abroad and the prospects of a minimum guaranteed income in Russia.

The Institute for Social Policy at the National Research University Higher School of Economics held on March 18, 2020 the 16^th academic workshop on the topic of International Experience of Guaranteed Minimum Income Programs: Opportunities for Russia. The event was organized on the online platform Zoom in the framework of a research grant funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (grant ID: 075-15-2020-928) and in cooperation with the World Bank within the series of events under the topic “Active Ageing Policy and Pension Reforms: Russian and International Experience”.

As part of the series, ‘Modern Analytics of Education’, the Human Capital Multidisciplinary Research Center has released a report entitled ‘Entrepreneurship Training in Universities in Russia and the World’. Based on a review of best practices, the authors identified 71 skills that are fostered in entrepreneurial education abroad. The researchers selected 63 programmes and courses from 44 universities and 24 countries for analysis.

On December 21, the symposium was held on theoretical and empirical studies of the problem coping with the coronavirus pandemic (the online event was held on the ZOOM platform).

The Institute for Social Policy at the National Research University Higher School of Economics held on December 17, 2020 the 15^th academic workshop on the topic of Social Protection as a Part of Anti-crisis Support Packages during COVID-19 Pandemic: Global and Russian experience. The event was organized on the online platform Zoom in the framework of a research grant funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (grant ID: 075-15-2020-928) and in cooperation with the World Bank within the series of events under the topic “Active Ageing Policy and Pension Reforms: Russian and International Experience”.

On December 4, the International Advisory Board of the Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge of HSE University met for its annual meeting. It was an anniversary event, as was the X Foresight Conference that preceded it. Largely thanks to the online format, the assembled board was the most representative of the field in its history. Experts from 20 international partner centres assessed ISSEK’s activities over the past year and proposed a wide range of topics for new research.