Science Committee meets in Ukraine

At the invitation of the Ukrainian authorities, the NATO Science Committee met for the first time in Ukraine, from 24-28 June, for a series of key meetings.
The NATO Science Committee is responsible for policy direction and oversight of the NATO Science Programme, which promotes collaboration between scientists from NATO and partner countries.

The regular spring meeting of the Committee took place in Kyiv, and the Committee also participated in a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Joint Working Group on Scientific and Environmental Cooperation, which was established in May 2000 to intensify NATO-Ukraine cooperation in these areas. All members of the Science Committee participated in the Working Group meeting, which was co-chaired by Mr. Jean Fournet, Chairman of the Science Committee, and Dr. Andriy Ghurziy, First Deputy Secretary of State, Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, and which was attended by Mr. Volodymyr Gorbulin, Head of the National Center on Euro-Atlantic Integration, who also officially opened the meeting.

At the Working Group meeting, the Ukrainian authorities identified the following priority areas for future co-operation with NATO in science & environment - Information technologies; cell biology and biotechnology; new materials and substances; environmental protection; and rational use of natural resources.

In addition to these meetings, two seminars were organised to which were invited young 'leaders of tomorrow', one in the premises of the Taras Shevchenko University in Kyiv, and another at the city hall of Sevastopol. At the Kyiv workshop issues of NATO-Ukraine relations, environmental security, industrial innovation and challenges for biotechnology in the defense against terrorism were addressed.

The Sevastopol workshop was opened by the Mayor of Sevastopol and was mainly dedicated to the problems related to the pollution of the Black Sea and research activities both those already accomplished and plans for the future. The achievements of the NATO Science Programme activities with respect to the protection of the Black Sea were highly appreciated by the audience.