Synergy effect of the Research and Educational Center – UNESCO CHAIR "Environmental Dynamics and Global Climate Change" as a driver of Yugra educational environment
Authors: Akhmedova I. D. 
Published: May 2024

The Strategy of socio-economic development of the Russian Federation with low greenhouse gas emissions until 2050 sets the task of including individual subjects of the Russian Federation in the experiment to work out mechanisms for achieving carbon neutrality with the subsequent scaling of the obtained experience, so the priority is the development of integrated research in the field of adaptation to climate change, monitoring and modeling of carbon flows, assessing the absorption capacity of ecosystems, searching for and implementing advanced technological approaches to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including decision-making management based on Big Data and artificial intelligence, environmental management technologies based on ecosystem principles.
This article presents the experience of Yugra State University in organization of research in the field of greenhouse gas monitoring, information on the main ongoing projects and possibilities of integrating the research agenda into the design of educational programs.
Yugra State University is a participant of urgent ecological agenda at regional, federal and international levels, carrying out researches in the field of environmental dynamics and global climate changes at the international field station "Mukhrino". At the station there is a unique infrastructure for multi-year year-round observations of hydrometeorological parameters, greenhouse gas fluxes and biodiversity.
All studies conducted by YSU are aimed at obtaining reliable actual data on background volumes of natural carbon dioxide emissions (CO2 and CH4) and carbon dioxide accumulation by natural ecosystems, establishing the role of peat bogs in maintaining the gas composition of the atmosphere comply with the demands of the modern Russian climate agenda.
At present, the University participates in significant federal projects: a pilot project of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation to create carbon testing sites on the territory of Russian regions to develop and test technologies to control the carbon balance and the Federal Scientific and Technical Program for Environmental Development of the Russian Federation and Climate Change in 2021 - 2030, as well as implementing a number of key projects for industrial partners to assess the greenhouse gas budget, study biomass and biogas emissions.
In order to integrate the results of scientific research and the best research practices into the educational space in 2020 the Higher Ecological School of Yugra State University became a part of the Scientific and Educational Center which allowed to launch new educational programs of higher and additional education.
The Higher Ecological School implements new educational programs for training highly qualified personnel in the field of control, monitoring of carbon balance and decarbonization of the economy:
- higher education in the direction of 05.04.06 Ecology and Nature Management "Carbon regulation in a changing climate". The program is focused on training specialists in the field of greenhouse gas monitoring, assessment of carbon balance, corporate carbon regulation, implementation of climate projects;
- Additional professional education "Experience in organizing the work and technical equipment of the carbon landfill", at the request of companies - "Carbon management and reporting of companies", "ESG transformation of companies in the context of new challenges".
The demand for personnel trained in eco-climatic education programs is due to the adoption of documents and programs in Russia aimed at decarbonization of the economy and green transformation.
Given the emerging educational landscape in the field of eco-climatic education, the university plans to implement relevant programs of additional education for children and youth on the basis of the children's carbon site in Shapsha:
- eco-climatic school for educators in the format of supplementary education program - "CLIMATLAB" (in a distance format) to improve the level of methodological training and mastering the formats and mechanisms of designing educational content for students within the global climate agenda.
- The program of additional education "Children's carbon polygon" for 8th-10th graders of school organizations of Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug - Ugra to form primary theoretical and applied competencies in the field of eco-climatic education;
- The program of additional education for youth "Eco-climatic principles of urban space transformation (eco-reconstruction)" (in a distance format) - to form basic applied competencies in the field of ecological design thinking, technological entrepreneurship and creative technologies, climatic design of urban space.
The prospect of commercialization of the scientific results of the Project is the use of data to determine the "baseline" for climate projects, consulting on the development and in the process of implementation of climate projects commercial, public-private (municipal-private) and state enterprises and organizations of the regions of Russia to achieve carbon neutrality, reducing transboundary carbon tax of exporting enterprises and the subsequent entry into existing and newly created markets of international and Russian
The key events of the beginning of the 2023 field season are the implementation of additional education programs in the format of advanced training courses for specialists of carbon test site "Experience of organization and technical equipment of carbon test site" (https://vk.link/mukhrino, VKontakte page - https://vk.com/mukhrino) and the Summer School for young researchers (https://vk.link/mukhrino_summer_school, VKontakte page - https://vk.com/mukhrino_summer_school) for undergraduate and graduate students.
During several days the leading experts will acquaint the students with the experience of greenhouse gas monitoring at the polygon, equipment and research programs, and on June 5, all the participants will be able to participate and share their personal experience and information about their own research at the round table "Carbon Disposal Sites: Solving Research and Application Problems".
Thus, the synergistic effect of interaction between the scientific center and the higher school is seen in ensuring national leadership of the university in scientific research in the field of greenhouse gas monitoring, development and transfer of technologies of nature management on ecosystem principles, advanced training of personnel to solve problems of low-carbon development in conditions of climate change.