Higher education of all former Soviet Union countries undergo the process of reforming and modernizing. Despite various country-specific features and peculiarities determined by political priorities, cultural and traditional differences, existing economic capabilities, all of them follow the same path delineated by such fundamental document as the Bologna Declaration and urgent needs of structural economic reforms. This is especially true for the Eastern European former Soviet republics – Russia, Ukraine and Moldova.
Ongoing structural societal and economic reforms in this region are impossible without re-thinking and re-defining the role of universities.
MERCURY (Towards Research and Entrepreneurial University models in the Russian, Ukrainian and Moldavian Higher Education) was a Tempus IV Joint European Project implemented from January 15, 2009 - January 14, 2012.
Mercury addressed the need of Russian, Ukrainian and Moldavian universities to improve their university business relations via creating a university system for research and entrepreneurial activities support, able to facilitate improvements in general climate for spin-off businesses creation, technology transfer, self-employment of students, staff members and graduates, intellectual property protection.
The outcomes of the project were:
Created/modernised IPR Management Offices in the partner Universities enabling them to efficiently protect and manage University Knowledge, generate more value and stimulate Technology Transfer;
Adaptation of European and local experiences of University services for Technology Transfer and Entrepreneurship support, and develop recommendations for structural reforms;
Enhanced capacity of the partner Universities to attract financial resources for innovation activities via private-public partnerships and securing competitive funding of projects and programmes;
Dissemination of obtained results and enable their uptake on the national levels.
