New leaders for technological breakthroughs in the energy industry

The article presents a program that makes it possible to integrate and coordinate the efforts of the “science - education - business” triad in order to address emerging tasks that the energy industry is facing amid radical technology modernization and smartization of the energy sector. The authors propose a multi-project called “New leaders for sustainable energy and the industry of the future” that consists of three sections: 1) Energy Business Striving for Leadership, 2) University for Anticipatory Education and 3) Integrated Research-Intensive Consulting. It is shown that the implementation of the multi-project calls for establishing a so-called “smart partnership” among the parts of the triad. The partnership is based on a long-term research agenda, unified methodology that builds upon the principles of system of systems management, and a technological platform. The backbone of the multi-project is Anticipatory Management in Fast-Growing Industries - a research field that the authors are working on. It sets the logic for building a portfolio of promising studies. The article outlines the experience and the first outcomes of implementing the proposed initiatives at Ural Federal University. Keywords: sustainable energy, multi-project, technology modernization, industry of the future, smart partnership, anticipatory learning, anticipatory management, technological platform, research-intensive consulting, energy business. © 2017 WIT Press.ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The work was supported by Act 211 of the Government of the Russian Federation, contract № 02.A03.21.0006