The USUST team was represented by Ihor Kovalenko, Head and Professor of the Department of Inorganic Substances Technology and Ecology of the USUCT SEI, and Roman Smotraiev.

The working meeting was highly productive and intensive — together with their colleagues, the participants detailed the stages of project implementation, their content, timelines, and responsibilities. Direct work on the project received a strong start! Of course, the project team also took the opportunity during the meeting to visit the specialized teaching and research laboratories of the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU).

In addition, the NMBU team significantly enhanced the usefulness and informative value of the first working meeting by holding parallel working meetings for two international projects: DigiGreen4Water and GreenCA (Greening Water Education for Sustainable Development in Central Asia, under the Erasmus+ programme), in which NMBU serves as the coordinator. The GreenCA project started six months earlier, so its participants were already able to share their findings, ideas, approaches, and methodologies.

The DigiGreen4Water project is being implemented under the Nansen EDU – Norwegian-Ukrainian Cooperation in Higher Education programme, funded by the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills.

The main objective of this project is to strengthen Ukraine’s water sector and enhance university water-related programmes during wartime. Since a functioning water sector is vital for public health and national security, strengthening it is not merely an educational objective but also a matter of protecting fundamental human rights. The implementation of the DigiGreen4Water project is based on the use of Norway’s experience in water resources management to address war-related challenges in Ukraine’s water sector, protect critical infrastructure, and uphold the human right to access to quality water.

The project activities involve lecturers of the Department of TNR and E engaged in its implementation, as well as students of educational programmes at the USUCT SEI in the specialties E2 Ecology and G1 Chemical Technologies and Engineering, with a professional focus on Drinking Water and Industrial Water Treatment Technologies in the Production of Inorganic Substances, who study at the Department of TNR and E.

The Department of TNR and E expresses its sincere gratitude to Professor Harsha Ratnaweera (NMBU, Norway) and his team for coordinating the project and organizing the meeting at the highest level, and thanks colleagues from other institutions for their fruitful and highly professional work!

You can also read about the event on the USUST website via the link