In this study, using the example of the experience of participation of the Emperor Alexander I St. Petersburg State Transport University (PGUPS) in the strategic academic leadership program “Priority-2030”, the transformation of the role of a modern branch university in Industry 4.0 in the implementation of technological sovereignty of the Russian Federation is shown. The purpose of the study is to reveal the role of the “Priority-2030” program in the sustainable and balanced development of the university based on the results of participation in the program from 2021 to the present.Materials from open Internet sources, tools of ecosystem and project approach, methods of system analysis, theory of synergetics, project management and innovation were used. The key results of the implementation of the program for the development of PGUPS until 2030 by the end of 2022, aimed at achieving strategic academic leadership within the framework of “Priority-2030”, are presented. The article shows that the PGUPS, acting under the development program until 2030 “Priority-2030”, builds its own system of creating and transferring knowledge into the development and manufacture of its own, maximally localized products for the domestic economy.