Moscow State University (Russian Federation)

UNESCO/IOC Chair in Marine Geology and Geophysics (Chairholder: Prof. M. Ivanov) was established at Moscow State University (Russian Federation) in 1994 to serve as an educational “arm” of the international “Training-through-Research” (TTR) programme (launched in 1991). TTR offers to students an entire cycle of advance education in core marine-related science through (a) education and training of young scientists (including advanced students) specializing in ocean sciences and (b) providing for the advancement, through research, of general scientific knowledge concerning the sea-bottom processes, structure and history. TTR contributes with the research results to the Ocean Science Section of IOC.

The Chair cooperates with over 100 universities, research institutions and companies throughout the world. Over 1000 scientists and students from over 25 countries have taken part in all kinds of the TTR activities including extensive exchange of students, young researchers and senior scientists for advanced on-the-job training, joint data collection, processing, and teaching. In the period 1991-2002, 12 annual international “training-through-research” cruises were carried out in the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean and Black Seas on board the two sister-ships, RVs Gelendzhik and Professor Logachev (Russian Federation). Eleven international conferences were held within the programme. At the TTR conferences, students (as well as scientists) present their research results.

The Chair plays a role of the focal point of the TTR programme and is the principal organizer of the “training-through-research” cruises. The Chair has proposed, developed and applied an innovative concept of “training-through-research”. Due to this approach, new facts, findings and ideas are immediately introduced in the curricula: thus science provides direct feedback to education. Through networking, international knowledge transfer is fully ensured. The TTR approach provides internationally wider access to advanced higher education and research, in Russia and other countries. Strong networking that has been developed serves the internationalisation of curricula, academic mobility of staff and students.

The Chair, with counterparts, has launched several cutting-edge research programmes in studies of poorly known but important environmental processes on the sea floor related to the geosphere-biosphere coupling processes and resources accumulation on continental margins, as well as on geohazards. Three special issues of international journals (Marine Geology Vol.132, 1996; Geo-Marine Letters No.18, 1998; Marine Geology Vol.195, 2003) are devoted to the results obtained so far, this is addition to a few hundreds of other publications (including peer-reviewed). The majority of these publications have been prepared by, or with the involvement of students. A number of bilateral agreements established between the Chair and institutions in other countries (like in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands) help indeed in advancing cooperation in training and research, but also in fund-raising. Some of the funds have come to the TTR programme from institutions involved in research (like the European Science Foundation or a number of European or global research programmes), some from universities interested in advanced training for their students but some from industries benefiting from applied results. Results of the TTR programme have been documented in nine Annual Reports (1994-2002), published by the Chair through IOC, and are presented at the TTR web site (http://www.ioc.unesco.org/ttr).