The opening ceremony took place on October 5th at KFU, presided by Head of RPS Yury Zinchenko.

The guests were greeted by Rector Ilshat Gafurov and KFU employees. Many colleagues sent their greetings from around the world, including Belarus, Kazakhstan, Europe, and the United States.

Before the opening, two letters were read – from Minister of Education and Science of Russia Olga Vasilyeva and Minister of Health of Russia Veronika Skvortsova. They both noted the importance of psychological well-being for the nation and hoped that the forum will bring new practical solutions to the science. Both greetings noted the importance of the combination of medical and psychological research at KFU, which contributes to unique capabilities in technology transfer.

Rector Gafurov said, “First of all, I would like to thank the leadership of RPS for the decision to hold this representative scientific forum at KFU. Kazan Federal University has had a deep-rooted tradition of psychological science. Psychology has been taught here since early 19th century – one archive document is dated 1814. For the participants and psychologists in general the more significant date is, of course, the opening of the first psychophysiological lab in Russia in 1885 by Vladimir Bekhterev”.

Interestingly, RPS was also founded in 1885. Many of its members have also been KFU employees at some time in their lives. Currently, the most prominent research areas here in this field are intercultural communication, medical technologies in clinical psychology, and psychological approaches in teaching. All of these topics are being discussed at the forum.

One of the contributors at the plenary session was Saths Cooper, Head of the UNESCO International Union of Psychological Science. He touched on the humanitarian values of psychology. He was also awarded the status of the Honorary International Member of the RPS.

Director of the Center for Emergency Psychological Aid of Emercom, Vice-President of RPS Yuliya Shoygu talked about psychological services in emergency situations and general results in this field for the last year.

Another important event was the signing of a cooperation agreement between RPS and Kazakh Psychological Society; the latter was represented by President Mukhan Perlenbetov.

The forum takes up October 5th – 7th.