On February 5th Russian Minister of Science and Higher Education Valery Falkov delivered a report on cooperation in the field of science, technology and innovation at the 8th Meeting of the Brazil-Russia High-Level Cooperation Commission, which is chaired by the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Mishustin and the Vice President of the Federative Republic of Brazil Geraldo Alckmin.
On February 3rd, before the Russian government delegation’s visit to Brazil, a meeting of the Russian-Brazilian Working Group on Cooperation in Science and Education was held in Rio de Janeiro. Minister of Science and Higher Education Valery Falkov put emphasis on the prospects of partnership between the two countries for the joint work of scientists at “megascience” class facilities:
Currently, Russia is completing the construction of eight unique scientific infrastructure facilities – synchrotrons, colliders and reactors. In this regard, we consider joint research with Brazil, where advanced facilities are also being created or functioning, to be extremely promising.
The working group meeting was attended by Denis Axenov-Gribanov, Candidate of Biological Sciences, Vice-Rector for Research and International Cooperation; Andrey Tanaev, Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Director of the Research Institute of Applied Physics at ISU; Nikolay Budnev, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Dean of ISU Faculty of Physics. Following the working meeting, Irkutsk State University expressed interest in cooperation with Brazilian scientists in research on astrophysical sources and mechanisms of particle acceleration to ultra-high energies, as well as in the search for manifestations of New Physics beyond the Standard Model using methods of cosmic ray physics, gamma and neutrino astronomy.
Andrey Tanaev:
We suggest jointly utilizing the capabilities of existing large-scale facilities and participating in the development of new instruments such as Baikal-HUNT and TAIGA-100, and we are interested in the joint processing and analysis of experimental data from Baikal-GVD, TAIGA, the Pierre Auger Observatory and others.
ISU physicists are interested in joint participation in Russian and Brazilian scientific projects and grant competitions with Brazilian partners. Irkutsk State University also proposes participating in joint interdisciplinary research on the impact of global natural processes and anthropogenic activity on the ecosystem of Lake Baikal, which is the world’s largest reservoir of potable water.
Another result of the working meeting is a possibility of ISU becoming a platform for training Brazilian master’s and postgraduate students in the field of particle astrophysics, based on the large scientific infrastructure facilities at its disposal.
