The meeting on 23rd May was a part of the 30th anniversary of bilateral cooperation celebrations.

During the talks, Rector Ilshat Gafurov briefly introduced the history and current developments at Kazan University and spoke about the University 4.0 strategy, which includes education, research, industrial cooperation, and digitization.

“Every structural unit has a special team responsible for digital transformation. Moreover, a kindergarten will join the KFU family in September 2019. I want to emphasize that the University Clinic, the kindergarten and both KFU lyceums are all our internal departments with unified management and accounting,” he said.

Dr. Gafurov further mentioned big international forums, such as PostGenome, Thermal Oil Recovery, and International Forum on Teacher Education. KFU’s strategy of internationalization, he added, bears fruit – there are currently over 7,000 international students from 98 countries.

Joybrato Mukherjee responded, “This is a convenient moment to discuss our joint priorities because our university has also undergone major changes recently and is looking for new foci. This is a result of the German Excellence Program – it stimulated us to seek funding and to redirect our approaches. Our two excellence projects are cardiopulmonary research and energy technology. Also, we have outlined seven priority areas where we have the most visible strength and leading strategic partners.”

The sides agreed that mutual spheres of interest may include bioeconomics, healthcare, climate change, sustainable development, conflict studies, and some other subjects. Understanding was reached with regards to intensifying research collaborations and applying for bilateral grants. A separate workgroup will be established for healthcare, keeping in mind that both universities have large teaching hospitals.

In conclusion, the two executives signed a new cooperation agreement for 2019-2020.

Source text: Kamill Gareev

Photos: Nikita Tokhtasinov

Translation: Yury Nurmeev