Siberian Federal University

On November 10-13, 2008 new exposition center in Stuttgart (Germany) hosted Global Connect International Forum and the 3rd German-Russian Small and Medium-size Businesses Conference which became the final events of the Year of Siberia in Germany. Within the framework of the Forum the presentation of the Siberian Economics (“Beyond oil and gas”) and exhibition “Innovations' potential of Siberia” with participation of the SibFU representatives were held.
Global Connect Forum is the traditional event held by the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce for small and medium-size businesses of Germany and other countries which aim at cooperation with German companies. This year the Forum was very representative. At the plenary session which opened the Forum Günther H. Oettinger, the Minister President of the Baden-Wurttemberg federal land, Michael Glos , Minister for Economics and Technologies of Germany, Dr. Klaus Mangold, Chairman of the Eastern Committee of German Industry and Commerce and Dr. Günter Baumann, President of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce for the Stuttgart region, Vice-President of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce held their speeches. Speech of Elvira Nabiullina, the Minister for Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation closed the plenary session. Vladimir Kotenev, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Russian Ambassador to Germany and Anatoly Kvashnin, Plenipotentiary Representative of the Russian Federation President in the Siberian Region, presented the review of the investments’ potential of Siberia for German small and medium-size businesses.
The Siberian delegation was the most numerous and included representatives from Krasnoyarsk and Altay Territories, Tomsk, Novosibirsk and Kemerovo Regions, as well as representatives of small and medium-size businesses of Siberia.
Olga Karlova, Deputy Chairman of the Government and Alexander Uss, Chairman of the Legislative Assembly, lead the Krasnoyarsk Territory delegation. Siberian Federal University delegation with Rector Evgeny Vaganov as its head presented 3 innovational projects: System of Monitoring Climate Changes and Greenhouse Gases Concentration in Siberia ( developers – SibFU and V.N. Sukachev’s Institute of Forest of SB RAS), Development, Certification and Implementation of Operating Technologies for Biological Testing of Toxicity of Environmental Waters and Sewage (developer – Yury Grigoriyev, Head of the Chair for Environmental Toxicity and Microbiology of the Institute of Economics, Management and Environmental Studies of SibFU) and Siberian Federal University – University of Innovations. Besides making presentations at the stands our delegation also took part in podium discussion, round table discussions and at the stock exchange of the contacts.
It should be noted that the exposition of the Siberian regions was the most busy one at the exhibition where not only life talk took place but also Agreements on Cooperation were closed on-the-spot. The German party was mostly interested in specialists’ training in the fields of applied economics & management at Siberian Federal University, forms of professionally oriented work with pupils and unique technology of sewage biological testing. Yury Grigoriyev, the developer of the technology, had been negotiating with and consulting German colleagues and entrepreneurs during these two days.
Dr. Evgeny Vaganov, Rector of Siberian Federal University, had a meeting with Dr. Karlheinz Köller, professor at the University of Hohenheim and Dr. Johem Giratz, Managing Director, at which possible ways of cooperation had been discussed and fields of scientific interests had been determined. Out of the proposed educational programs the most interesting for Siberian Federal University are Masters and Post- doctoral programs in applied economics, biotechnologies and environmental studies at Hohenheim University within the programme of international academic mobility Erasmus Mundus. As the result of these negotiations it is planned to form a work group at SibFU and send representatives of Siberian Federal University to Germany to discuss details of future cooperation.