Universities are undergoing intensive transformation. This transformation is due to changes in the technological format of modern civilization, and most importantly - the speed of these changes. The university must learn not only and not so much professional standardized activity as the development and implementation of innovations, or even start-ups directly. In this connection, it is important and necessary to talk about socio-cultural engineering, as the systematization of knowledge, development practices, expertise and implementation of projects related to the transformation of social reality, the socialization of the individual. Such expertise is necessary not only in relation to the results of the implementation of technological projects, but also in relation to the development goals and the process of implementing such innovations. It can be assumedthat, thereby, a new request is being drawn up for the humanities, including specialists in applied ethics.