Vitebsk State University will act as the coordinator of universities of Russia and Belarus in the interregional scientific research competition

June 17, Vitebsk / Sergey Kochetov - BELTA /. The Vitebsk State University named after P. Masherov (VSU) will act as a coordinator for universities in Russia and Belarus to participate in the Belarusian-Russian interregional competition for fundamental research. This was reported to a BELTA correspondent by Alexander Galkin, Head of the Research Department of the Vitebsk university. The joint competition in the border regions of the two countries was announced for the first time this year by the Belarusian Republican Foundation for Fundamental Research (BRFFI) and the Russian Foundation for Humanities (RGNF). The competition accepts fundamental research projects on priority scientific problems of social, humanitarian, and economic profiles for Belarus and Russia. A mandatory condition of the competition is the implementation of projects by joint scientific teams of Belarusian and Russian scientists. To participate in the competition, universities in the Vitebsk, Mogilev, Smolensk, and Pskov regions have entrusted VSU with the role of the lead organization for preparing applications. Specialists from the Vitebsk university will coordinate the work of interested parties in forming joint working groups for the preparation of scientific projects, assist in attracting research institutions and organizations from the border regions to participate in the competition, and resolve organizational issues. All working meetings of university representatives will be held in Vitebsk. The topics of future projects will concern such areas of humanities as history, archaeology, ethnography, philosophy, philology, art history, pedagogy, social problems of medicine and human ecology, jurisprudence, and economics. According to preliminary data, university scientists have developed proposals for more than 10 scientific projects and have determined the composition of joint scientific teams. In addition, the possibility of conducting joint research on more than 30 other projects, which may also be submitted for the competition, is being worked out, Alexander Galkin added. Smolensk State University, Smolensk State Agricultural Academy, Smolensk Humanitarian University, Pskov State Polytechnic Institute, as well as universities in Vitebsk, Polotsk, and Mogilev have shown interest in scientific cooperation. -0-