The Russian Science Foundation (RSF) supported the idea of a team of researchers from the Graduate School of Management of St. Petersburg University (GSOM SPbU) to develop digital knowledge maps for educational and research teams (the METAKARTA project). The project won a grant in the priority area of activity of the Russian Science Foundation.

Such maps will help to structure and formalize the knowledge of the teaching teams of educational institutions and research teams. The availability and openness of information about the competencies of employees will help improve the quality of scientific communications, exchange of information and positioning of players in the market of intellectual services. The development of a methodology and technology for digital mapping will also make it possible to transfer “implicit” knowledge into explicit knowledge, which will allow more efficient management of the intellectual capital of universities and research institutes.

“Knowledge is the most valuable intellectual capital of higher education. Part of knowledge "lives" only in the mind of a researcher or teacher, it is implicit knowledge. The other part of the knowledge is well articulated, but known only to a group of like-minded people. The project is aimed at the visualization of knowledge, for their wider dissemination and exchange, to detect gaps. This is useful for scientific communications, it is important for students and applicants. The knowledge map is the visiting card of the research team.”

Tatyana Gavrilova, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Head of the Department of Information Technologies in Management, GSOM SPbU.

The project should be implemented in 2023-2024 in several stages. First, the authors will analyze modern research in the field of formation and maintenance of ontological type knowledge maps and develop a methodological basis for integrating structured data from heterogeneous sources. The next stage involves the creation of technology for the formation of digital knowledge maps of members of scientific teams, taking into account their scientific, consulting and educational activities. As a result, a team of researchers will present a prototype of METAKARTA, developed on the example of a knowledge base of a university faculty.

Further implementation of the technology will make it possible to visualize the intellectual landscape of the scientific community, compare the scientific potentials of different teams, and also find colleagues for collaboration.

This year, according to the results of the competition, the Russian Science Foundation supported 2017 projects from 500 organizations. St Petersburg University is the leader in terms of the number of grants won — 112 out of 235 applications from university researchers will receive funding and implementation. Lomonosov Moscow State University ranks second with 91 grants (4.5%), Ural Federal University and Southern Federal University share third place with 35 grants each (1.7%).