South Ural State University took part in a meeting held for participants of the Ural Interregional Research and Education Centre for Advanced Industrial Technologies and Materials (UIREC) the day before reports were to be prepared on the work of the REC in 2020. At present, there are 58 members in the REC.
The World-class Ural Research and Education Centre for Advanced Industrial Technologies and Materials includes the major universities of the Ural region, as well as the largest enterprises of the region. The Ural Research and Education Centre won a competition for federal support; in addition, projects are financed from the regional budget. During 2020 they managed to achieve significant results.
"South Ural State University is successfully developing projects in all fields under UIREC. The university acts as a regional project office and, therefore, we appointed leaders for each field. Viktor Fedorov, Dean of the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, is responsible for aerospace. Victor Guzeev, Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, is in charge of new technologies. Anton Bychkov, Acting Dean of the Faculty of Energy and Power Engineering, is in charge of energy projects. Mikhail Ivanov, Dean of the Faculty of Materials Science and Metallurgy Engineering, is in charge of new materials research; Viacheslav Avdin, Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry, is in charge of environmental research," said Sergey Vaulin, SUSU Vice-Rector for Research and Education Centres and Complex Scientific and Engineering Programmes and Director of the Institute of Engineering and Technology.
SUSU pays a great deal of attention to the educational component of the UIREC. Igor Shchurov, Deputy Director of the Institute of Engineering and Technology, deals with the educational platform; Irina Voloshina, Director of the Institute of Supplementary Education, is responsible for advanced training of UIREC participants through continuing education. Commercialization of projects plays an important role, so the economic part is managed by Irina Savelyeva, Director of the School of Economics and Management. The government of the Chelyabinsk Region provides a great deal of assistance.
The priority of the Ural REC is the development and implementation of innovative technologies, the formation of the market of high-tech industries in the interests of domestic industries (mechanical engineering and instrumentation engineering, aircraft and space technology).
As part of UIREC, South Ural State University is participating in a project to create a new space complex aimed to protect the Earth from the falling space bodies. Today, scientists from the Academician V.P. Makeyev State Rocket Centre are working on this project jointly with engineers from SUSU and JSC R&DIME.
SUSU is currently working on the possibility of creating a reusable single-stage space launch vehicle, the design of which was proposed by the Academician V.P. Makeyev State Rocket Centre. The launch vehicle would deliver up to seven tons of payload to the near-Earth orbit. The rocket's inter-flight maintenance time will be only 24 hours. Scientists and engineers plan to test the first prototype launcher in 2028.
SUSU is a university of digital transformations, where innovative research is conducted in most of the priority fields of science and technology development. In accordance with the strategy of scientific and technological development of the Russian Federation, the university is focused on the development of big scientific interdisciplinary projects in the field of digital industry, materials science, and ecology.
In the Year of Science and Technology, it will take part in the competition under the Priority-2030 program.