• HoNESt project deals with attitudes to nuclear energy;  
• A perfect example of science diplomacy and of the effectiveness of the UK-Russia relationship;
• British Council Russia can support UK institutions seeking to find Russian research partners.

19 April 2017, the EU Science Counsellors Meeting, held at the EU Delegation to Russia on a bi-monthly basis, hosted a presentation of preliminary results of the international project “HoNESt: History of Nuclear Energy and Society” by Dr. Natalya Melnikova from the Russian Institute of History and Archaeology (Yekaterinburg). The scope and the international setup of the project, its wide coverage, impressive budget and the fact that Russia was chosen for full funding by the European Commission as a holder or exclusive and vital expertise, once again proves Russia to be a treasured actor on the European science and technology scene.

The project was a bottom-up initiative conceived by a very diverse group of researchers from all over the world, and has been realised through ‘Horizon 2020’, the EU Research and Innovations Framework Programme. The project spans the territory of 20 countries, and the list of participants includes, of course, the UK (represented by the Universities of Central Lancashire and Sheffield, the Science Museum, and the Gene Rowe Evaluations) and Russia, but also the US, Germany, Spain, France, Greece, Bulgaria, and Portugal.

The project, scheduled to run for three years from 2015 to 2018, explores societal and cultural attitudes of the populations of participating countries to nuclear energy and nuclear proliferation, and hopes to contribute to the formation of a set of healthy and diverse nuclear discourses – both national and international. Apart from the obvious relevance of the research topic for Russia and the UK (and the rest of the world), the project has an added value of being a perfect example of ‘science diplomacy’ in action, showcasing the potential of science to unite societies and build people-to-people contacts even when politics as usual is experiencing some turbulence.

Moreover, the involvement of the Russian party – the Institute of History and Archaeology of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences – was funded directly by the European Commission, as it was deemed holding exclusive expertise, vital to the success of the project. It is also worth mentioning that it is one of the less common examples of the Social Sciences project with an impressive budget of 3.052.269 euros.

This brilliant example of international scientific cooperation is a telling example of effectiveness of the many measures recently implemented by the Russian authorities to increase the prestige of the S&T sector in general and particularly a career path in science and education. These developments coupled with a cautiously optimistic prognosis for the revival of Russian economy in the next several years, once again proves Russia as a promising market for the UK education institutions and language schools.

The British Council Russia welcomes and encourages all kinds of scientific contacts and would be able to provide information and support for UK institutions seeking to establish research links with Russian counterparts through any kind of cooperation and funding programmes. Currently, British Council Russia offers several programmes connecting UK and Russian universities: Researcher Links and Institutional Links and Researcher Connect, but it can also offer help and information support to UK universities who wish to connect with their Russian counterparts through other channels, such as the Erasmus+, International Credit Mobility, Horizon 2020 and EURAXESS UK.

For more information please contact marina.bykova@britishcouncil.org.