An advisor of European Union recently became acquainted with Tomsk State University’s main areas of development and major research projects, and TSU and EU representatives discussed further partnership in education and science. EU representatives were particularly interested in the Center of Science and Ethics that will open at TSU.
The European Union was represented by Laurent Bochereau, head of S&T and Other EU Policies Section of the Delegation of the European Union to the Russian Federation; Sari Eriksson, advisor of the Embassy of Finland; Abdo Malac, advisor of the Embassy of France; and Sijbrand Noordermeer, adviser of the Embassy of the Netherlands.
Tomsk State University was represented by First Vice-Rector Viktor Dyomin; Vice-Rector for Social Services Sergey P. Kulizhskiy; Vice-Rector for Research and Innovation Alexander B. Vorozhtsov; Vice-Rector for International Affairs Artyom Yu. Rykun; and leading scientists of the key TSU research projects.
“We have presented our successful Priority 2030 program, and demonstrated our major areas of development for 2021-2030 according to the TSU strategic project. Our colleagues from Europe were very interested in our Arctic research and climate research, our participation in the Arctic Council, and TSU’s innovational policy,” commented Viktor Dyomin.
The European Union delegation reviewed all the major TSU projects in key research areas. One of them is in social studies and humanities – the Institute of Rights in collaboration with the European Union, that was presented by Alla Agabekyan, senior lecturer at the TSU Institute of Law. Julia Emer, professor at the Faculty of Philology and the head of the Division of Information Policy, presented a project of the TSU Center of Science and Ethics. This center is intended to consolidate academic and public effort to solve contemporary ethical issues.
“It’s the first time I’ve heard the idea of a center dedicated to ethics, and bioethics in particular. We are interested in this area. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, we invited experts from France to Moscow-based conferences dedicated to ethics. We would love to know more about your plans and collaboration opportunities,” noted Abdo Malac, advisor of the Embassy of France.
Andrei Trifonov, head of the small innovative company Aeroschup and a member of the TSU Biological Institute staff, introduced the delegation to Puroceans technology, an environmentally-friendly product to clean bottom sediments from oil and petroleum products. Irina Kurzina, executive director of the Institute of Smart Materials and Technology, presented the Institute’s developments in chemical and biological technologies. Maxim Freidin, researcher at the Laboratory of Population Genetics (Research Institute of Medical Genetics, Tomsk National Research Medical Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences) spoke on engineering biology, one of the frontier research areas of modern science.
The meeting participants agreed to organize and finance joint projects and educational exchange programs, as well as joint international grant applications. In addition, Alexei Stukanov, head of the Department for International Cooperation; Evgenia Nefedova, his deputy; and Irina Kuklina, Executive Director of the International Centre for Innovation in Science, Technology, and Education (ICISTE) took part in the discussion on the prospects of cooperation with the EU.
“The EU delegates noted our ambitions and expressed the wish to collaborate that we hope to make come true. Currently, we are discussing with Irina Kuklina the possibilities of participating in conferences on the Arctic,” Viktor Dyomin summed up.
The second day of the visit was dedicated to the European Union delegation presenting programs in scientific, technical, and innovation cooperation of the EU member states to the representatives of the Tomsk universities.
