Fundamental research without applied research cannot have a direct impact on the economic ecosystem. Modern universities require intense cooperation with industry. The model of the Innopolis system is peculiar, companies support scholarships, and students have free education that they will pay back by working for 1 year after graduation.

1 The Environment

Innopolis University targets excellence in teaching IT and leading technological transformation in Russia. Digital technologies and IT sector permanently evolve as shown by dramatic changes in the recent years. Research and education programs have to be in constant contact with industry in order to preserve the relevance and value. Among other methods, consulting by faculty members is a natural way to be emerged in to the IT sector everyday problems and track the validity of research and education programs. Moreover, the consulting activities by faculty members convey a positive message to the industry with regard to the Innopolis brand and excellence, thus reinforcing the impact of the IU on the IT sector and society in general while contributing to a self-sustained university as a private education institution.

The major goals in this field can be identified as:

  1. 1.

    to become trusted advisor for the leading IT companies across Russia and Tatarstan

  2. 2.

    to establish proved track of records of projects delivered for leading IT companies in Russia and Tatarstan

  3. 3.

    to provide the mechanism for faculty members to establish direct touch with industry needs

  4. 4.

    to get additional funding for the IU to become a financially viable institution

  5. 5.

    to get additional funding for the faculty members to run research activities

2 The Expertise

Due to their background and experience, IU faculty members have a natural capability to create and deliver dedicated trainings. These trainings may lead to certification such as Project Management Professionals or others. The faculty at IU have a strong experience in research activities, which in most cases implies their keen ability in developing prototypes and conducting studies. This may be particularly valuable for industry seeking to validate their hypothesis with scientific methods including prototyping.

IU is a hub where specialists of different IT-related disciplines and sectors meet. Thus, IU has a first-level access to professionals who are enthusiastic to participate in studies on technology trends in IT. In addition, faculty members are exposed to the cutting-edge technologies and are experienced in analysis methods. With that, IU can offer a unique view on the trends with a scientifically proven analysis.

Faculty members are knowledgeable in many very advanced areas of IT. They are also hands-on and operational to run short-term projects with high impact. Members are willing to participate to those industry projects within their capacity and in an area of their research interests. Nevertheless, the following limitations should be noted:

  1. 1.

    Time budget. During the teaching semester, the capacity of faculty is very low since their priority is teaching, though some would be able to devote from 1 h to 1 day per week to an interesting project;

  2. 2.

    Research interest. Faculty members have usually a very focused area of research interests that might be difficult to match with an industry demand.

A number of specialized courses can be taught by the faculty. Courses can be organized in different groups:

  • Courses derived from academic teaching: these courses span from the basic to the advanced ones and are adapted versions of the current courses taught at BSc and MSc levels;

  • Courses derived from research activities: these courses are generally advanced ones that can be created based on the expertise of specific faculty members and connected to past and current research activities;

  • Custom courses: these courses can be designed ad hoc to satisfy the needs of a specific company (or a set of companies) focusing on specific topics and not present in any catalogue of the standard courses offered.

The faculty can also provide support to companies in the development of the application for a patent and in the management of the IP-related issues. Such activities may include:

  • Analysis of the patentability: technical analysis of the invention to understand if it is possible to apply for a patent;

  • Plagiarism analysis: analysis of the implementation of a technology to understand if it infringes a specific patent or copyright.

3 Experience of Corporate Training

Innopolis University team is specialized in delivering corporate training for management and developers. Several training sessions have been conducted for managers and developers of phone service providers and other business fields too. Typically, the sessions last for several days [10].

For example, only in 2018, more than 400 h of training were conducted involving more than 500 employees in 4 international companies. Although we cannot share the details of the companies involved, they are mid to large size and employ more than 10k people.

Figure 8.1 depicts one of the business trips for consultancy to one of the major Russian communication companies.

Fig. 8.1
figure 1

Business trip for consultancy. On the left Evgenii Bobrov, current provost for education

Full size image

The trainings are typically focusing on:

  • Agile methods and their application

  • DevOps philosophy, approach, and tools

  • Microservices

3.1 Organization and Delivery

The target group is generally a team (or multiple teams) of developers, testers, and often mid-management. We also suggest companies to include representatives from businesses and technical analysts and marketing and security departments. The nature of the delivery depends on the target group: sessions for management focus more on effective team building and establishment of processes. When the audience is a technical team, the focus goes more on tools and effective collaboration within and across the teams.

3.2 Structure

The events are typically organized in several sessions run over a 1-day to 3-day format made of frontal presentations and practical sessions. The sessions are generally conducted at the office of the customer in a space suitably arranged after the previous discussion with the local management. Whenever possible, the agenda and schedule of the activities have to be shared in advance. In this way, the participants know what to expect, and sometime a preparatory work is required.