Visit of the Director General of the Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia to the University of Oxford
From February 11 to 13, 2019, the General Director of the National Science Foundation, Zviad Gabisonia, is on a working visit to Oxford. Within the framework of the visit, an agreement was signed between the University of Oxford and the Science Foundation regarding the "Georgian Studies" program. This program enables young scientists to conduct their research for one year at the University of Oxford—specifically based at the Marjory and Oliver Wardrop Archives of the Bodleian Library (Bodleian Library, University of Oxford)—in the fields of anthropology, sociology, economics, politics, international relations, history, art, religion, culture, and manuscript studies.
Zviad Gabisonia also met with professors from the University of Oxford: Professor Roger Cashmore of Balliol College (Natural Sciences - Physics); professors of St Antony's College Christopher Gerry (Humanities), Dan Healey (Humanities), Alan Roy (Social Sciences), and Neil MacFarlane (Social Sciences); professors of the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies Edmund Herzig (Humanities), Mark Burnett (Humanities), and Paul Chaisty (Social Sciences); as well as Gillian Evison, Head of the Bodleian Libraries, and briefed them on the main aspects of the ongoing comprehensive reforms in Georgia's education system. Special attention was paid to planned changes in the field of science, the prioritization of scientific directions, and the prospects for developing scientific clusters. The British professors shared Oxford University's experience with the General Director of the Foundation and expressed their readiness to provide relevant recommendations during the implementation of the reforms.
Within the framework of the visit, a meeting also took place between the General Director of the Foundation and Professor Hubertus Jahn of the University of Cambridge, where they discussed prospects for institutional cooperation based on a bilateral university agreement. Tamar Beruchashvili, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Georgia to the United Kingdom, expressed full readiness to facilitate the integration of the Georgian scientific community with British universities such as Cambridge and Birmingham, and to support the popularization of Georgian science in the United Kingdom.
