The meeting was attended by AEOI’s Director General for International Affairs Ali Akbar Rezaei, and representatives from EUROfusion (the European Consortium for the Development of Fusion Energy), Euratom (The European Atomic Energy Community), and EU’s Joint Research Centre (JRC).
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the meeting, Rezaei maintained that the third meeting on research and development cooperation will be held in Brussels in November. A number of working groups will also be formed to deepen interaction between Iranian and European scientists.
The first meeting of Iran-EU Working Group took place in Brussels in September 2016, during which both parties agreed that cooperation under the EU Horizon 2020 program would be strengthened, particularly in the scientific fields of Health, Energy, Food, Water, Environment, Climate Change, Social Sciences and Humanities.
Rezaei went on to add, “three days ago, we held a joint seminar with experts from the European delegation during which fields for research and development cooperation according to Euroatom program were reviewed from a technical viewpoint.”
“EU representatives then paid a visit to six research centers and laboratories in Iran. We also discussed 30 research proposals with them and received their opinions on the proposals,” he said.
“We have made plans for organizing training courses and mutual visits of representatives of Iran and the EU, and will endeavor to maintain regular contact for implementing our joint research projects in the field of peaceful nuclear energy,” he added.
The JRC representative said the Center has plans for cooperating with Iran in the fields of fission and fusion for peaceful research purposes, while the representative from Euroatom stated that research and academic centers have been invited to take part in the EU meetings. EUROfusion official discussed nuclear fusion and ITER megaproject, saying EU cannot implement the project on its own and requires international cooperation from all countries.
AEOI Spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi had said back in February that Iran’s membership in the multi-national nuclear fusion megaproject known as ITER is in the final stages of consideration.
MS/INR82587379