On 29 August 2019, a visit of a large delegation from the Federal Republic of Germany to the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research was held.

Among members of the delegation, there were representatives of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, namely Sabine Carl, Desk Officer for EU Education Programmes and International Cooperation in Education, and Annett Schwartz, Desk Officer for Cooperation with Eastern Partnership Countries, Russia, and Central Asia. The delegation was accompanied by Jerzy Bohdanowicz, Head of the Division of Labour, Social Affairs and Health of the German Embassy in Moscow, and Prof. Ekaterina Esenina, Leading Researcher of the Federal Institute of Education Development (FIED RANEPA, Moscow). The delegation also comprised of representatives of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training, the German Aerospace Centre, the Goethe Institute in Moscow, as well as research centres in Jülich and Darmstadt.

The visit of the delegation was introductory and was aimed to establish contacts and determine possible directions for cooperation in the fields of vocational training and skill development of engineers and technicians. In the frames of the visit, the delegation was acquainted with the Laboratory of High Energy Physics and the Laboratory of Neutron Physics where the guests visited the objects of the scientific infrastructure, learned about major fields of research, and met leaders of the laboratories.

The visit was concluded by an extensive thematic discussion at a meeting of the delegation with representatives of the JINR leadership. JINR was represented by Vice-Directors R. Lednický and V. D. Kekelidze, Chief Engineer B. N. Gikal, Assistant Director for Human Resources A. V. Ruzaev, Head of the International Cooperation Department D. V. Kamanin and his Deputy A. A. Kotova, FLNP Director V. N. Shvetsov, Deputy Director of the University Centre A. S. Zhemchugov, Head of the VBLHEP Department S. A. Kostromin.

At the end of the meeting, Sabine Carl gave comments to the Institute’s media on the aims of the delegation’s visit: “The present visit was held in the frames of the implementation of the Roadmap for cooperation between Russia and Germany in the fields of education, science, research, and innovations signed in December 2018. One of the key issues of the Roadmap is the development of cooperation in the fields of training talented youth. Our major task in this regard is to train technical staff for work in science. Modern challenges in science set us the task to enhance educational programmes for the staff on the basis of large-scale research facilities. German research centres have already joined the implementation of the task. Now, in the frames of the Roadmap mentioned above, we have a unique opportunity to implement already acquired many-year experience in vocational training in the new context. We hope that at further meetings with JINR representatives, we will find ways to implement effectively a programme of the staff training on the basis of such an object with a large research infrastructure as JINR. This cooperation is mutually beneficial. In our turn, we hope to gain significant and valuable experience for further modernization of our educational programme. In this regard, special attention should be given to the training of middle-level technicians apart from higher education. Today’s meeting was the first step towards mutual understanding in the implementation of these tasks. We hope that this aspect of cooperation will be interesting for your organization as well.”

It should be reminded that on 28 June 2019, a regular meeting of the mixed Russian-German commission on scientific and technical cooperation was held. The parties discussed the progress in and planned further steps for the implementation of the Roadmap for Russian-German cooperation in the fields of education, science, research, and innovations signed on 10 December 2018 in Moscow. The Roadmap regulates scientific and technological cooperation of both countries for the next decade. Following the results of the meeting, Grigory Trubnikov and Georg Schütte signed the “Berlin Ministerial Declaration of Intent”. The document reflects the mutual interest of the parties in the development of cooperation in the frames of the PIC and NICA projects, in particular, in the creation of the International Organization for the use of neutrons in research.

Kristina Moisenz,
Photos by Elena Puzynina