TOMSK, Apr 21 – RIA Tomsk. The visiting session of the Verona Eurasian Economic Forum was held at Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) on Wednesday, representatives of the authorities of Russia and Italy, Russian and Italian companies discussed areas and formats of cooperation, RIA Tomsk correspondent reports from the scene.
Earlier it was reported that the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Italian Republic to the Russian Federation Pasquale Terracciano is working in the Tomsk region. The day before, the regional administration held a meeting with the regional leadership and representatives of Italian business, where projects and experience of international cooperation were discussed.
On Wednesday, the first visiting session of the Verona Eurasian Economic Forum, which will be held in Verona on October 28-29, 2021, was held in the hall of the TPU Academic Council. This is the first international event in the Tomsk region since the start of the pandemic. At the meetings in the regional administration and at TPU, the Russian and Italian sides discussed the prospects for cooperation.
“Today we had a very interesting meeting with (TPU Acting Rector) Andrey Yakovlev, where we discussed the possibilities of cooperation between Italy and Russia, including at the level of universities... We will plan a trip of a scientific attaché of the Italian Embassy in Moscow to Tomsk Polytechnic so he can study all possibilities of research cooperation on the spot," Terracciano said.
He added that Italy is interested in cooperation with TPU in the field of studying climate change, in particular in the Arctic, and hydrogen energy: "It is in this area, I think, we can have joint grants."
© РИА Томск. Таисия Воронцова
Pasquale Terracciano
Long-standing cooperation
As Yakovlev noted in his report to the session participants, TPU is actively working with Italy in the field of science and education: to date, 17 valid agreements have been concluded with Italian universities on joint research and academic exchanges.
“We have 17 partner universities in this country (in Italy), cooperation is going on both in terms of the technological agenda, and in terms of small-scale chemistry, health engineering, digitalization, which is changing our world. These serious challenges that we are facing, we cannot solve them alone, we need a new network format of interaction. It is this format of interaction that will give the result," he explained to the journalists.
Yakovlev also announced his readiness to cooperate with Italian partners in projects to study greenhouse gas emissions in the Arctic, hydrogen energy and other topics.
© РИА Томск. Павел Стефанский
Andrey Yakovlev
As the press service of TPU reported, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Banca Intesa and the President of the Conoscere Eurasia Association Antonio Fallico noted at a meeting with the university administration that Tomsk Polytechnic is well known not only in Italy, but throughout Europe.
"I have known for a long time about TPU's strong ties with Italian universities. As a bank, we ourselves are not engaged in academic research, but we cooperate with research centers in various fields. <...> We would like to take advantage of this meeting at TPU to understand how we can develop cooperation in education and science," he is quoted in the message.
© РИА Томск. Павел Стефанский
Antonio Fallico
Also, the press service of the university reported that in 2020 TPU and the Polytechnic University of Milan won a mega-grant from the Russian government. A new laboratory for X-ray structural analysis will be opened at the university using the grant funds, in which scientists will study a new topic for the Russian Federation - non-valent interactions in molecules. By controlling these interactions, it is possible to control the structure of substances, to create new functional materials.