Renewable Energy, Biotechnology and Nanotechnology are major topics in the scientific cooperation between Germany and Russia. The dynamic shifts in the international scientific community within the last few years demand a strong support of Young Academics. To face these needs Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) and East-West-Science Centre (OWWZ) of Kassel University organised a special interdisciplinary conferences for young scientists from both countries. From May 19th till May 23rd TPU invited the German delegation of young scientists to Tomsk (Russia) and hosted the event within its facilities.
To shape the conference, connections and resources of special bilateral networks like the German-Russian Cooperation Network Biotechnology, NanoBRIDGE and the German-Russian Network Environmental Research and Technologies were used by the organisers. On location the event was strongly supported by the members of the Renewable Energy Club of TPU. The Club is led by graduate students with the aim to promote renewable energy and fuels of which hydrogen is a key element to the students’ community.
The main objective of the conference was to bring together young and senior scientists from different kind of working fields but interlinked to an environmental background. This unusual constellation enabled different points of view on research problems and therefore generated a fruitful matrix for interdisciplinary networking with a focus on knowledge and skills in specialized areas along with cross-cultural scientific discussion. About 200 participants (speakers, poster presenters and listeners) were registered at the conference.
Welcomed by Mrs. Svenja Ewert, the representative of the German Consul General in Novosibirsk, and Prof. Oleg Khasanov and Fedor Gubarev from TPU the conference started with presentations of Dr. Martin Krispin on support and funding programmes of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the German Houses for Research and Innovation Moscow and Nicole Burghardt (OWWZ) on services and networking activities for young scientists at OWWZ. Orientation lectures on the fields of Renewable Energy, Biotechnology and Nanotechnology concluded the general part of the event. PhD-Students and Post-Docs from Kassel University, Furtwangen University and Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology (IWES) presented their current research work and discussed with young scientists from Tomsk Polytechnic University and other Russian Universities (Institute of Strength Physics and Materials Science SB RAS, Technical Institute (branch) of the North-Eastern Federal University, Yakutia and others) perspectives of cooperation.
In addition to the regular sessions special tours and visits to laboratories and research facilities of TPU were provided to the German participants giving the opportunity for personal and individual talks.
The conference and the travel of the German delegation were supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the German Houses for Research and Innovation, Moscow.
TPU, OWWZ and the participants agreed on the success of this first interdisciplinary conference approach and plan to install this kind of conference as an annual event.
Contact
Dr. Gabriele Gorzka
Ost-West-Wissenschaftszentrum Hessen
UniKasselTransfer, Universität Kassel
Phone:+49 561 804-3609
gorzka(at)uni-kassel.de
www.owwz.de
Dr. Tamara Petrashova
Tomsk Polytechnic University
Pone:+7 3822 563 888
petrashova(at)tpu.ru
www.tpu.ru
