The article analyzes the process of formation of research universities as one of the elements of a strong innovation economy. The formation of a new university model is a global trend, successfully implemented in English-speaking countries. In Russia, the educational system is not yet ready to ensure the country’s effective competition in the innovation market. The Strategic Academic Leadership Program “Priority-2030” is designed to carry out the functional transformation of the entire infrastructure of human capital reproduction in a short period of time in Russia. The article presents an analysis of the main conditions for the development of a university with a research strategy, as well as an assessment of the implementation of this strategy by Moscow Polytechnic University. The methodological basis of the study was formed by qualitative methods: included observation and benchmarking of universities’ activities, which allowed to generalize the current global trends and best practices in the field of education. For the analysis we used the data of monitoring the activities of higher education organizations, data of official statistics, as well as data from reports and presentation materials of universities and online publications participating in the “5-100” and “Priority-2030” programs. The results of the study may be useful for researchers and practitioners engaged in the transformation of the Russian higher education system.

In this study, the entropy weight method, the α convergence model, the absolute β convergence model and the conditional β convergence model are used to evaluate the 31 provinces’ innovative potential in China from 2011 to 2022. It is found that the innovative potential in nationwide China and in various regions are all increasing year by year, and the innovative potential in the eastern region is obviously better than that in the central region and western region. No matter considering the influence of external factors or not, the gap of innovative potential among provinces in different regions will gradually expand over time, with the largest gap among provinces in the eastern region, followed by the central region and the smallest in the western region. The conclusion of this study is instructive to enhance the innovative potential of China and promote the balanced development of regional innovative potential in China.

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a certification program for quantitatively assessing the qualifications of homes, non-residential buildings, or neighborhoods in terms of sustainability. LEED is supported by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a nonprofit membership-based organization. Worldwide, thousands of projects received one of the four levels of LEED certification. One of the five rating systems (or specialties) covered by LEED is the Building Design and Construction (BD + C), representing non-residential buildings. This rating system is further divided into eight adaptations. The adaptation (New Construction and Major Renovation) or NC applies to newly constructed projects as well as those going through a major renovation. The NC adaptation has six major credit categories, in addition to three minor ones. The nine credit categories together have a total of 110 attainable points. The Energy and Atmosphere (EA) credit category is the dominant one in the NC adaptation, with 33 attainable points under it. This important credit category addresses the topics of commissioning, energy consumption records, energy efficiency, use of refrigerants, utilization of onsite or offsite renewable energy, and real-time electric load management. This study aims to highlight some differences in the EA credit category for LEED BD + C:NC rating system as it evolved from version 4 (LEED v4, 2013) to version 4.1 (LEED v4.1, 2019). For example, the updated version 4.1 includes a metric for greenhouse gas reduction. Also, the updated version 4.1 no longer permits hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants in new heating, ventilating, air-conditioning, and refrigeration systems (HVAC & R). In addition, the updated version 4.1 classifies renewable energy into three tiers, differentiating between onsite, new-asset offsite, and old-asset offsite types.