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Tatarstan to train specialists in composite materials

Before end of 2012, the company plans to organise in the Republic of Tatarstan in its special economic zone

MOSCOW, October 27 (Itar-Tass) — At the IV international forum on nanotechnologies, Rusnanotech 2011, Director General of the Composite Holding Company /HC/ Leonid Melamed and Chancellor of Kazan’s national research technology university /KNRTU/ German Dyakonov signed on Thursday an agreement on cooperation in training specialists.

“The purpose of the agreement is to train specialists, postgraduates and students in composite materials for various purposes,” a source at Composite HC said.

Before end of 2012, the company plans to organise in the Republic of Tatarstan in its special economic zone, Alabuga, a new platform to produce carbon fibre. KNRTU will train specialists to work at the new innovative enterprise.

“Russia lacks engineers, and we have to search for specialists in composite materials throughout the world,” Leonid Melamed said commenting on the agreement. “Not only Russian, but Western companies, too, face difficulties in finding composite materials specialists.”

“For example, the world’s largest car manufacturer BMW cannot find candidates for over a hundred vacancies of specialists in composite materials, and the only way out is to train specialists for the new sector by means of a joint effort of educational institutions and businesses,” he said. “This is exactly the objective of our agreement with KNRTU.”

KNRTU’s chancellor said that the university “will train specialists, who will have necessary competence for development of the new sector in Russia.”

“Thus, we suggest making input in implementation of our creativity in a sphere, which is new for us – that of polymer composite materials on basis of carbon fibre,” he said.

KNRTU is a university educational-scientific-innovative complex, which forms one legal entity and which comprises all divisions, necessary for scientific and educational activities in closed loop – from training to industrial design. The university unites 15 educational and research institutes. It trains 27,000 students from Russia and foreign countries; it is active in training of about 100 directions and specialities.

The Composite Holding Company was organised in 2009 to form the market of composite materials in Russia. The vertically integrated holding unites enterprises producing high-tensile and high-module carbon fibres, fabric on their basis and high-quality prepregs, which are used in aviation industry, in construction, car and ship building.