Diplomats Came to University to Find Out About the Prospects of the Ural Interregional Research and Education Center

17:24, March 1, 2021

On March 1, interaction between state-led institutions of Russia and 35 other countries facilitated the project's renown among interested foreign audience

The diplomats of 35 countries were presented the opportunities of the Ural Interregional Research and Education Center of the world level Advanced Industrial Technologies and Materials. The presentation took place in the main educational building of the Ural Federal University.

The event was attended by representatives of embassies, consulates and diplomatic missions operating in Russia, as well as partners who represent universities and enterprises of a number of states. The Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany Mathias Kruse, the Consul General of the Kyrgyz Republic Ruslan Biybosunov and the head-advisor of the department of the Embassy of the Republic of Belarus Vitaly Voytik personally participated. The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Slovakia to the Russian Federation Lubomir Regak has connected online.

Speaking to the diplomats, the rector of UrFU Victor Koksharov noted that the center's peculiarity is that its work includes leading universities, academic institutes and enterprises of three regions at once - Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk and Kurgan. And its main task is to ensure effective interaction of regions in a single economic and social complex.

“The Urals are facing a large number of challenges associated with access to essential technologies, the drain of talent and the decline in the share of the working-age population,” stressed Victor Koksharov. - Causes concern and the state of the environment in the centers of industrial development. A large number of metallurgical, energy and chemical enterprises are located in the Urals, which give a very strong technogenic load. There is also a significant gap in the socio-economic development of the territories - up to three times in terms of income. The center must adequately respond to these challenges. UIREC activities will also contribute to the growth of innovative activity in the real sector of the economy. To solve these problems, we are interested in attracting partners both in Russia and from other countries."

The priority areas of the center are aerospace, ecology of the urban environment and industry, and new energy. Basic end-to-end technologies - new materials and new technologies. In 2020, for implementation at industrial enterprises, the center developed more than 250 technologies for the needs of the Ural enterprises. At the moment, the structure of the UIREC includes 58 participants - 39 enterprises, nine universities and 10 academic institutes. The volume of funding for the center's projects until 2024 will amount to more than RUB 14 billion. At the moment, the REC portfolio consists of 42 projects, of which four are breakthrough. The partners of the center are leading Russian and foreign enterprises: Roscosmos, Ural Locomotives, Rostatom, Evraz, Sinara Group, NPO Avtomatiki, ProSoft, Siemens, Fanuc, etc.

Valery Charushin, Chairman of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, member of the Supervisory Board of UrFU, spoke at the meeting about successful examples of combining the innovative potentials of academic, university science and the real sector of the economy in the implementation of the project. In particular, about promising technologies for the nuclear industry, mathematical modeling to ensure the safety of airliners. The experience of interaction of the institutes of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences with the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Combine, the Kirovograd Hard Alloys Plant, the Pervouralsk Novotrubny Plant, and the Transneft company is indicative.

“The institutes of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences have extensive experience in effective interaction with enterprises in the region, a number of projects have been implemented jointly with the Ural Federal University. I am sure that every year there will be more and more such successful examples. The doors of the UIREC are open for new proposals, ”Valery Charushin said.

The event was also attended by Assistant to the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Ural Federal District Anna Lenskaya, Deputy Governor of the Sverdlovsk Region Alexey Shmykov and First Deputy Governor of the Chelyabinsk Region Irina Gekht.

We add that the meeting was attended by the Minister of Industry and Science of the Sverdlovsk Region Sergey Perestoronin, the head of the Ural Territorial Administration of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, a member of the Supervisory Board of UrFU Igor Manzhurov and the Minister of Education and Youth Policy of the Sverdlovsk Region Yuri Biktuganov.

The Ural Federal University initiated the creation and performs the functions of the project office of the Ural Interregional Research and Education Center of the world level "Advanced Industrial Technologies and Materials".

Academic institutes of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Institute of Electrophysics, Institute of Solid State Chemistry, Institute of Metallurgy, Institute of Metal Physics named after M.N. Mikheev, Institute of Organic Synthesis named after I. Ya. Postovsky, Institute of Mathematics and Mechanics named after N. N. Krasovsky), as well as leading universities of three regions - South Ural State University, Kurgan State University, Chelyabinsk State University, Ural State Mining University, Ural State Law University, Technical University UMMC, Magnitogorsk State Technical University and Ural State Medical University.