On May 6,KNRTU representatives participated ina regular online meeting on priority areas of the world-class Research and Educational Center (REC) of the Republic of Tatarstan. The decree on the REC creation was signed by President Rustam Minnikhanov this February, and he also headed the Supervisory Board of the new structure designed to integrate universities, scientific institutions and enterprises of the real sector of the economy.

During the previous round of meetings on April 22 and 23, the main directions of the REC development were formulated. Companies and universities presented 340 initiatives. KNRTU was productively involved in this work: the project was supervised by Vladimir Petrov,Dean of the Department of Energy Saturated Materials and Products, and Nikolai Abrukov, Adviser to the Rector. The working group also included 10 top-level professors representing the University's leading scientific schools. Proposals and ideas of scientists from KNRTU were presented at seminars in the areas of "Extraction and Deep Processing of Hydrocarbons", "Agriculture and Biotechnology", "Mechanical Engineering: Automotive, Aviation, Defense Industry".

On May 6, the seminar was attended by 70 people - representatives of leading universities and companies of the Republic of Tatarstan. The moderators were Rafinat Yarullin, Head of Tatneftekhiminvest-holding, and Andrey Pominov, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Tatarstan.

The main report was made by Marina Lipetskaya, Head of the Project Office of the REC — the Center for Strategic Development "North-West".

She said, “The initial analysis demonstrated the readiness of the scientific and technological sector of the Republic to produce demanded technologies and become a driver of economic development. The region claims to be a world leader in a number of industry areas, in particular, oil production and engineering, as well as in the field of new materials, and national competitiveness in medicine, agriculture, information technologies, energetics, and biotechnologies”.

The central element of the presentation during the report was the Priority Matrix, which horizontally displayed the priority areas of industry specialization in the region — oil and gas production, engineering, medicine, agriculture, and vertically – rapidly developing technological areas that together give an impetus to the restructuring of industries: advanced materials, digital technologies, energy technologies, and biotechnologies.

According to Marina Lipetskaya, with a multi-industry specialization of the REC, its central theme should be Circular Economy, which includes all the thematic priorities outlined above and will make it possible to distinguish Tatarstan among the RECs from other regions. The title reflects both the emphasis on closed-loop technologies and the sustainability of the economic model.

Now KNRTU is represented in such priority areas as Oil Production, Refining, Petrochemistry and Mechanical Engineering: Automotive, Aviation, Defense Industry. As Alexander Sirotkin, Dean of the Department of Food Technologies, and Nikolai Abrukov noted at the seminar-meeting, it is also necessary to involve the University in the Agriculture and Biotechnology and Non-Conventional Materialsareas. It was also noted, that for the implementation of such areas, cooperation with Innopolis University in the field of creating automation systems and digital solution support is promising.

Such general online seminars, as well as meetings within individual areas, will continue.