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UNESCO environment protection grant winners announced in Moscow

MOSCOW, September 22. /ITAR-TASS/. An international jury which represents scientific research centers of Africa, Europe, North America and Southeast Asia, has nominated six best competitors for grants instituted by UNESCO, the Russian FosAgro company and the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Chemistry in the field of health and environmental protection, President of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Vice-president of the Russian Commission for UNESCO affairs Vladimir Fortov declared at a gala ceremony on Monday.

“The grant winners have suggested concrete ways of settlement of global problems of sustainable development; the award offers each winner an opportunity to realize their projects at the expense of Russian business,” Fortov said. The FosAgro company had allocated $1.6 million in support of the research projects, Fortov added.

The winners are young scientists from France, Ukraine, Egypt, Peru, Malaysia and China. One of the winners is a scientist from Malaysia who created a project that resolves two problems at once: it removes excessive lead concentration from waste waters and lowers the amount of food waste, said Maciej Nalec, director of the UNESCO Basic Sciences and Engineering Division. He admitted that a final decision was no easy thing to do. Nonetheless, "the jury is confident that the winners whom the jury nominated, are the best on the list of applicants," he said. Theoretical projects would be put into real practice and prove very useful for society, the UNESCO expert said.