Plenary session with experts from practice, science and education

Prof. Alexander S. Denisov, Rector of the Novosibirsk State Agricultural University and Evegenii Leshchenko, Acting Minister of Agriculture of Novosibirsk region welcomed the international guests, particularly underlined importance of the conference topic for sustainable development of the Novosibirsk region. During the plenary session Hans Peter Pöhlmann presented the international agricultural project ‘The German-Russian Agricultural Political Dialogue’, and Prof. Aleksand Merzlov from the Russian State Agricultural University – Moscow Timiryazev Agrarian Academy told about approaches and success of the project ‘The most beautiful villages in Russia’ towards sustainable development of rural areas. As an example of good practices for implementation of regional development projects, the Maslyanino district of Novosibirsk region was presented. SARUD partner Alexey Emelyanov, from Tambov State University, who was also partner regional coordinator in RUDECO project, presented the Technologies Transfer Center for Bioresources Management, which is meanwhile supported by several international institutions and the Academy of Sciences of Russian Federation, and which is a spin-off of SARUD and RUDECO. Intensive discussion with experts and experience exchange started already during the plenary session.

The second part of the plenary was dedicated to the presentation of the SARUD project and implemented Master’s curriculum and its contribution to the sustainable development of rural areas in Russia and in Kazakhstan. Project international (Prof. Martin Dieterich) and national (Prof. Dr. Nina Kazydub and Prof. Nadezhda Meleshenko) coordinators introduced project achievements, explained challenges the consortium had to overcome and shared experience gained during implementation of the SARUD project. The highlight of the plenary session were reports by SARUDstudents of the first cohort about their study experiences.