Don State Agrarian University became a member of the Chinese-Russian Research Institute for the Future of Agriculture, reports official website of the university.
According to the partners of the international project, the scientific center will become an engine for the development of agricultural science and technology in the SCO countries, as well as a platform for open cooperation and the search for talented young scientists.
The signing ceremony of the agreement on the establishment of the Research Institute for the Future of Agriculture took place on October 26 as part of an international online conference. From the Russian side, Vice-Rector of the Donskoy State Agrarian University for Research Aleksey Avdeenko, representatives of the Research Institute of Agriculture of the Northern Trans-Urals, Michurinsk State Agrarian University, the Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the All-Russian Research Institute of Tobacco, Shag and Tobacco Products, from the Chinese side - leaders and leading scientists of the Center for Protection plants, the Center for Biotechnology Research, the Research Center for Functional Ingredients of the Tobacco Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, as well as representatives of the Bureau of Science and Technology of Qingdao.
The new research center is being created as part of the agreements between the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in order to accelerate the implementation of innovative development strategies, the development and promotion of breakthrough technological innovations in modern agriculture. As noted in the text of the agreement, within the framework of the research institute a universal management structure will be created, as well as an integrated technological platform "open for use by all parties to the agreement, with a full range of specialized equipment, cross-integration and collection of profitable and promising innovative resources from China and Russia."
The organizers of the scientific center consider the development of functional food products and synthetic biology to be one of the promising areas - the design and creation of biological systems with desired properties and functions, including those that have no analogues. Comprehensive research groups will be formed to implement projects in these areas.
Initially, the activities of the Institute will be carried out within the framework of the SCO economic zone in the area of Qingdao on the territories allocated for agricultural experimental work.
According to Vice-Rector of the Don State Agrarian University Aleksey Avdeenko, in the future, it is possible to expand the geography of the international project. “The possibility of using the resources of the Russian side is also being discussed. Donskoy State Agrarian University, in particular, has a successful experience in implementing international research projects; within the framework of the UNPK of the university, we carried out the laying of experimental crops, complex agrochemical studies,” he noted.