International Competence Center for Mining Engineering Education under the auspices of UNESCO, Saint-Petersburg, Russia

V. T. Borzenkov, CEO, Candidate of Engineering Sciences, Borzenkov_VT@pers.spmi.ru
V. N. Brichkin, “Project Science” Manager, Doctor of Engineering Sciences

The long-term core action of UNESCO consists in promotion of communication between people and in encouragement of using communication tools to find common ground and to receive better knowledge about the life of each other in five program areas: education, natural sciences, social and human sciences, culture, and communication and information. This approach governs the main structure of the programs, institutes and centers that institutionally and legally are the part of UNESCO. Expansion of UNESCO’s scope of activity and the pressing issues of the global agenda for sustainable development has improved international communication on the basis of UNESCO Category 2 Institutes and Centers which represent a global network of entities possessing advanced experience within UNESCO Competency Framework. Out of 104 Category 2 Centers, 75 centers implement programs in natural sciences, including two centers established under the initiative of the Russian Federation and being UNESCO’s privilege partners. One of the centers is the International Competence Center for Mining Engineering Education—UNESCO Category 2 Institute, which defines its status as an entity launched at the level of an independent country that shares UNESCO’s values and principles, and helps reach UNESCO’s goals and objectives on the national and international scales. Creation of the International Competence Center for Mining Engineering Education under the auspices of UNESCO became an obligate result of activities aimed at strengthening science and technology sovereignty and leadership in the era of re-industrialization of the national economy and the rise of a multipolar world. The Center’s enabling activities to facilitate accomplishment of the Sustainable Development Goals have proved efficient in terms of the implementation of a pilot project on higher education improvement and highly qualified personnel training for the mineral sector of Russia and friendly nations within the framework of groundbreaking achievements in scientific research and in the atmosphere of trust built on multiculturalism and continuity in engineering education.

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