SIN Russia supports RSC’ UK-Russia Chemistry week
SIN Russia worked closely with the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) to facilitate the Inaugural UK-Russia Chemistry Week.
The event was held in Moscow on 21 to 26 October 2014 to advance UK-Russian excellence and innovation in the field of chemistry. Each day was devoted to a different theme. The first three days focused on entrepreneurship, publishing, and cheminformatics. Those were followed by a series of outreach activities for the public in collaboration with the British Council.
SIN Russia took special interest in the RSC Publishing Day programme and sponsored a round table on Open Access in which the Russian Foundation of Basic Research (RFBR) and the EU Delegation to Russia participated. In his opening address Gareth Wynn Owen, SIN Russia Head, stressed the importance of Open Access, saying it was key that all stakeholders worked together to make Open Access a reality as it would create exciting opportunities for researchers worldwide.
The roundtable itself involved a set of informative presentations, from representatives of the RSC, Moscow State University and NEICON, covering a range of topics from the challenges of publishing in Russia to innovation in data publishing within the Global Chemistry Network.
The subsequent discussion was masterfully orchestrated by Prof. Martyn Poliakoff, Foreign Secretary and Vice-President of the Royal Society and prominent green chemist.
Academician Oleg Nefedov (Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry), Prof. Natalya Tarasova (Mendeleev Institute of Chemical Technology), Prof. David Phillips (Past-President of the RSC), Prof. Sharov from RFBR and Prof. Djavdet Suleymanov (Vice-President of the Tatarstan Academy of Sciences) participated in the discussion, as well as a number of young scientists and Russian publishers.
Thanks to SIN Russia support, RSC International Development Manager Stuart Govan and his team had a chance to establish and strengthen their contacts with key members of the Russian scientific community. Given the success of the event and the interest from the public, RSC is planning to increase its presence in Russia, hopefully making the UK-Russia Chemistry Week a regular event.
- RFBR: Russian Foundation of Basic Research
- RSC: The Royal Society of Chemistry
- NEICON: National Electronic Information Consortium
- SIN: Science and Innovation