British Council Ukraine is awarding £30,000 in exploratory grants for higher educational institutions in Ukraine and the UK to explore future academic collaboration and partnerships.
The purpose of the grants is to provide universities in both countries with the opportunity to develop a partnership and to create a plan for future collaboration. Priorities were given to projects related to the subject area of Energy (including oil and gas, tight or unconventional gas and renewables).
Director of British Council Ukraine, Martin Dowle, stated:
“One of our key objectives is to strengthen ties between British and Ukrainian universities, and to this end we are announcing a boost to further collaboration through this first tranche of grants.
“The key criterion in making the selection was the extent to which the exchanges would result in sustainable future ties between universities. The awards will permit academics from our two countries to explore areas for future research and teaching capacity in areas related to gas in particular.
“Over time these partnerships will make a considerable contribution to Ukraine’s know how in the energy field as it seeks to become a significant player in the oil and gas industry.”
Ukraine plays a major role in the EU’s current and future energy security and clearly in the nearest future this sphere will develop promptly. Respectively, a leading role will be assigned to universities of Ukraine in order to respond to the opportunities now opening up. We open doors for further collaboration between UK and Ukraine, and are pleased to provide grants up to the value of 5000 GBP to support 6 joint projects of UK and Ukraine universities”.
British Council will support the following applicants:
- Keele University - V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Department of Ecology
- University of Manchester - Ivano-Frankivsk National Technical University of Oil and Gas, Research and Development Institute of Oil and Gas Power Engineering
- Energy Institute, University College, London - V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Department of Physics and Energy
- Durham University - Donetsk National Technical University, Department of Geology
- Aberystwyth University - Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Department of Geology
- Durham University - V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Department of Chemistry
Selected institutions are expected to provide a report detailing their activities, a plan for collaboration - a ‘road map’, - and present joint research findings and publications within the next 6 months (March – August 2014).