From May 18 to May 19, Sergey Vasin, Vice-Rector for Research and Innovation of Penza State University, took part in the V International Forum-Exhibition of Business Contacts "Brest-2022" as part of an official delegation from the Penza Region led by Nikolay Simonov, Chairman of the Penza Region government.

The forum brought together representatives of state bodies, the diplomatic corps, business, education and science from 15 states. Issues in the field of international cooperation, business, science and innovation were discussed.

Negotiations were held with the leadership of two universities of the Brest region - Brest State Technical University (BrSTU) (Aleksandr Bakhanovich, Rector, Doctor of Engineering Sciences; Mikhail Neroda, First Vice-Rector; Nikolai Shalobyta, Vice-Rector for Research; deans of faculties) and Polessky State University (PolesSU) (Vladimir Shtepa, Vice-Rector for Research, Doctor of Engineering Sciences, and deans of faculties). The main issue of negotiations is joint scientific research and cooperation in the field of education.

At BrSTU, the delegation from the Penza region got acquainted with the infrastructure, material and technical base of the university, visited educational and industrial laboratories. Together, the guests and the hosts identified common scientific interests in the areas of neural network technologies, precision farming systems, and regional economics. At PolesSU, key areas of cooperation related to biotechnology and the green economy were identified.

The main purpose of the meetings is to prepare and submit applications for conducting scientific research and receiving funding from the Russian Science Foundation and the Belarusian Foundation for Basic Research within the framework of joint grants, as well as to participate in other contests for joint research. In the course of the meetings, issues of student academic mobility between the universities with the possible organization of a project of double-degree educational programmes were also discussed.

A preliminary agreement was reached on concluding a cooperation agreement in case of its positive approval in the relevant Ministries of the two countries.