As Russia marked Russian Science Day on February 8, a delegation from Germany’s Helmholtz Association of research centres visited the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) to discuss ways of improving cooperation between the two countries’ science communities.
Helmholtz Association president Otmar Wiestler and Skoltech's outgoing president Edward Crawley listen during the discussion on cooperation on Monday. Photo: Skoltech.
The delegation from the Helmholtz Association, Germany’s largest scientific organisation that comprises 18 science-and-tech and biological-medical research centres from around the country, sat down with their counterparts, including Skoltech’s outgoing and incoming presidents, professors Edward Crawley and Alexander Kuleshov, to discuss ways in which the two organisations could cooperate.
“The potential areas we discussed for cooperation were computational neuroscience and biomedical technologies, which could be expanded to other areas such as the mass spectrometry analysis of tumours, and the third area is energy: hydrocarbons,” said Professor Otmar Wiestler, president of the Helmholtz Association, summing up the results of the discussion.
To bring about that cooperation on a practical level, he suggested that each side should nominate four or five senior principal investigators, or research group leaders, who should identify “highly motivated, brilliant PhD students or young postdocs” in the three areas identified for cooperation.
“We need to establish contacts,” said Wiestler, proposing a faculty of about “10-20 gifted young people.”
“We could then arrange meetings [for those students] in a summer school type of scenario,” he suggested. “We must find a platform for these students to meet for a week or so to discuss research in depth, maybe arrange exchange visits, and once these guys come up with some really interesting exciting proposals for joint projects, then we could set up a program for them.”
Wiestler presents Skoltech provost Keith Stevenson with gifts from the Helmholtz Association after the talks on Monday. Photo: Skoltech.
Alexei Sitnikov, Skoltech’s vice president for institutional development, whom Wiestler suggested could coordinate that process on the Skoltech side, welcomed the delegation and said he hoped the discussion would lead to concrete results.
“We are constantly working on strengthening our cooperation with other significant organizations, and clearly the Helmholtz Association is such,” he said. “I hope that what we discussed today will lead to commercializing scientific developments and will be beneficial for all — students, professors, and business leaders.”
Skoltech was the German professors’ first port of call during their three-day visit to Russia.
“This is the [Helmholtz] president’s first official visit to Russia, and his first request was a visit to Skoltech, because he has heard so much about it and wanted to see it for himself,” said Dr. Elena Eremenko, head of the Helmholtz Association’s Moscow office, which opened 11 years ago.
“We hope it won’t be the last visit and that some permanent cooperation will come out of it,” she said.
Wiestler praised Skoltech, which was founded four years ago. “It’s impressive to see what you have assembled here,” said the German professor of neuropathology.
While cancer research and treatment was not one of the areas of possible cooperation specifically discussed at the meeting, a leading oncologist in the German delegation said he would welcome the opportunity to exchange knowledge with his Russian colleagues.
“I’m a radiation oncologist, that’s my background, and I think it would be very interesting to catch up with specialists in Russia to see what we can do together,” said Professor Michael Baumann, director of the Institute of Radiooncology at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf.
He said that there was currently little cooperation between Russian and German institutes in the fields of cancer research and treatment.
“Traditionally, there were many [areas of cooperation], 20 or 30 years ago,” he told Sk.ru. “Many of them are not in place any more. But actually it’s a good opportunity to start from scratch,” he added.
Baumann, who is also a former president of the European CanCer Organisation (ECCO), offered some advice for the Skolkovo Foundation’s new united cancer centre, whose creation within the foundation’s biomedicine cluster was announced just last week.
“I think what needs to be done is define the main challenges in cancer research and cancer care for the coming 10, 20, 30 years – there are some really big ones – and then work on them,” the professor told Sk.ru.
“Modern cancer research is very multidisciplinary. To start from scratch is actually a fantastic opportunity,” he said.
While some Russian cancer patients currently undergo treatment abroad, frequently in Germany, Baumann expressed no doubt that Russia could catch up.
“Nothing in cancer research goes past a decade,” he said. “A lot of really good cancer research and care is about strategy: it needs a long-term strategy.
“I think within 10 years it’s possible to catch up,” he said.