Vasiliy Klyucharyov graduated from St. Petersburg State University in 1994 with a degree in Physiology; in 2000 he was awarded a candidate degree in Neurobiology.

Upon completion of postgraduate studies he worked for a long time in Europe as a teacher and researcher in such fields of science as neuroeconomics, social and cognitive neuroscience, neurophysiology of emotion. In 2000-2004 Vasiliy Klyucharyov was engaged in research activities at the University of Technology of Helsinki (Finland), in 2004-2009 - at the Institute for Brain, Consciousness and Behavior and Research Institute of Management in the Netherlands, in 2009-2013 - at the University of Basel (Switzerland). Under the guidance of Vasiliy Klyucharyov several Russian and European students defended their theses and dissertations..

Vasiliy Klyucharyov is a member of the international professional community Society for Neuroeconomics and the Society for Neuroscience, colleagues recognized his authority in the field of neurobiology of decision-making, he has several dozens of publications and reviews of articles for international journals like Psychological Science, Neuron, Human Brain Mapping and others. In 2013 Vasiliy Klyucharyov was invited to take the post of dean of the faculty of psychology at the Higher School of Economics and is currently working in Moscow.

Vasiliy Klyucharyov, leading a group of scientists and researchers, has developed a program “National Postgraduate Training Network in Biotechnology of Neurosciences (BioN)”. The program was created in order to modernize the system of postgraduate education in biomedicine and neurobiotechnology, and bringing it into compliance with international standards. Today the program has acquired the scope of the project which represents the first in Russia Postgraduate Training Network in Neurotechnology “BioN” (www.neurobiotech.ru) and is created on the basis of four leading universities: Lomonosov Moscow State University, St. Petersburg State University, Southern Federal University and Lobachevski Nizhny Novgorod State University.

The project “BioN” is aimed at solving problems in the execution of Presidential Decree “On measures to implement the state policy in the field of education and science” (dated May 7, 2012) No. 599, providing for the introduction of at least five Russian universities into the top one hundred world leading universities according to world ranking of universities by 2020.

The project “BioN” includes:

• training in new biotechnologies;
• introduction of new educational standards of international level for postgraduate education in the Russian Federation;
• use of advanced forms of learning (modular intensive courses of leading researchers, webcasts, webinars, intercollegiate workshops);
• optimizing the use of resources and instrumentation of scientific and educational centers;
• popularization of innovations;
• development of academic mobility in the country.

The pilot version of the project was carried out in 2010-2013 under the grant of the Tempus European Commission. Almost all post-graduate students, participants of the project, successfully defended their dissertations and continued to work in the profession. Dissertations have been reviewed by foreign experts from Europe’s leading research and educational centers. Most of the graduates have been invited to take up positions of researchers and teachers

In general, 99% of students participating in the program successfully completed postgraduate studies, which considerably exceeds the statistics for the Russian Federation. Since 2010, interest in the project by the post-graduate students has been consistently and steadily increasing, during the project they received requests for the admission to BioN postgraduate school in general and requests to participate in some educational activities from post-graduate students from partner institutions and other organizations. Most of the courses organized within BioN are open to all interested parties after the passage of competitive selection. In 2010 the project involved 105 post-graduate students and young professionals, in 2011-185, in 2012 - 267.

Thus, the BioN program is successfully preparing highly qualified personnel for the high technology industries such as biomedicine, biotechnology, pharmaceutical industry, using the latest global education standards.

The initiators of the BioN project believe that the support of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives will help with the search for new partners to expand the network of participants in the program, will attract potential investors interested in the successful development of the BioN project, investors, which ultimately will become the employers of young qualified employees in various high-tech businesses. Information support of BioN from ASI will facilitate dissemination of the results of the program. ASI can provide the organizers of the project with assistance in the development of new standards in postgraduate education of the Russian Federation.