Results of the VI Conference of the Russian-American Scientific Association RASA-USA have been summarized

The conference participants included the Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation D.V. Livanov; Russian Ambassador to the USA S.I. Kislyak; specialists of the Ministry of Economy and Development of the Russian Federation; representatives of the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Health and Standards and National Institute of Technology of the USA, Russian and American leading universities, scientific and investment funds and companies, Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Russian Venture Company, etc.

The welcoming speech was delivered by Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation Dmitriy Livanov and Deputy Minister of Education Lyudmila Ogorodova, who also acted as moderator of one of the conference’s sessions.

“Our strategy is to strengthen the relationships with the Russian scientific society,” said the minister. “It is one of the strongest societies in the world and we understand that due to some objective reasons a lot of outstanding Russian scientists are working abroad. Although, Russian science will be actively and dynamically growing only on the condition of those scientists’ major involvement. By virtue of their own willingness and aptitude to participate in Russian projects, of course.”

The Minister was talking about the actions of the Ministry of Education and Science towards information accessibility development, which is a factor of every scientist’s effective work, the creation of electronic libraries, partners seeking system, informational services of Russian scientists and organizations activity and electronic site of job vacancies for young scientists.

In the framework of the conference plenary session, two panel discussions dedicated to new initiatives in cooperation with Russian-speaking scientific society and prospects for further development of collaboration between Russian universities and foreign partners and experts in scientific, educational and innovative areas were held. Heated debate took place during the session concerning commercialization of academic research results. Leading scientists from the USA and Russia, representatives of different scientific areas delivered their reports at scientific sessions.

During coffee-breaks and lunch between the sessions the participants were actively discussing poster presentations.

In the evening of November 7 the protocol event took place: the ceremonial reception at the Russian Embassy in the United States.

On November 8 Russian Ambassador to the USA Sergey I. Kislyak made a welcoming speech in front of conference participants and noted the Russian scientists’ invaluable contribution to the world science. Deputy Minister of Education Lyudmila Ogorodova held a panel discussion on Russian-American scientific and technical cooperation with the participation of Olga Kochetkova from the Ministry of Economy and Development, Alexander Sharov from Russian Foundation for Basic Research, specialists from National Scientific Foundation and National Institute of Health of the USA. During the discussion the speakers acknowledged that political sanctions had not affected the collaboration between Russia and the USA, and this was exactly the reason why the number of joint projects continued to grow. From 2010 to 2015 there were as much bilateral agreements signed as from 1992 to 2010.

The conference program ended with an open panel discussion dedicated to RASA-USA development and future projects of the association. In the course of discussion big contribution of the Association into development of Russian-American scientific relations was acknowledged; participants discussed prospects for opening RASA-centers in Russian universities, organization of distant educational programs and courses. For the first time in the framework of the official program debate on creation of youth direction in Association was conducted. Postgraduate student of the National University of Science and Technology MISiS Oleg Mansurov presented his own suggestions on this issue, postgraduate student from Kazakhstan, representative of KazAlliance Temir Alimov shared his experience in work with international youth associations.

More than 100 people participated in the conference. Business program events were organized with the support of Russian Embassy in the USA, Russian Center of Science and Culture in the USA.