The international activity and cooperation with foreign partners is one of the priority directions of work of any modern scientific institution. Our Institute is not an exception.

Conditionally, it is possible to divide the international activities of FSBSI “Izmerov Research Institute of Occupational Health” into several groups:

Let us consider the first item — Cooperation with international non-governmental organizations. Now, these are three large organizations.

The World Health Organization (WHO)

The work on obtaining the status of the WHO Collaborating Center for Occupational Health continues. Last year, the preparatory stage of the work on this issue was finished. The Director of the Institute approved the plan for this phase on February 19, 2015, in consultation with the WHO European Center for Environment and Health, and by the occupational health units and the network of the WHO Collaborating Centers in Geneva.

In 2015-2017, the program was completed in full. The Institute's directorate reported it at a meeting held in Budapest in September 2017 within the framework of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe.

At the end of autumn 2017, the planned 4-year development program of the Institute as the WHO Collaborating Center for Occupational Health was agreed upon with the European Center for Environment and Health, which oversees the Institute in this matter. This program formed the basis of the prepared materials for downloading to the Internet system of the WHO CC.

The period of legal settlement and registration of the status of the WHO Collaborating Center for Occupational Health to our Institute began approximately from the end of autumn of 2017.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)

Our Institute continues to participate in a large-scale retrospective study of the risks of oncological diseases caused by the professional impact of chrysotile asbestos containing dust.

The International Labor Organization (ILO)

At the end of June 2017 in Milan, Italy, a very important event for the entire world of occupational pathology took place. Under the auspices of the International Labor Organization, an expert working group consisting of leading specialists in this nosology has gathered to review the list of occupational diseases of the ILO.

The group included: the representative of the WHO headquarters, the head of the department of occupational health Ivan Ivanov, the representative of the ILO, the head of the direction of occupational health Shengli Niu and 6 specialists from all regions of the world specially invited to work in this project.

The Director of FSBSI “Izmerov Research Institute of Occupational Health” Igor Bukhtiyarov was the representative from Russia, the CIS countries and Eastern Europe.

In one of the days in the same place in Milan, an international conference entitled “Harmonization, Registration and Prevention of Occupational Diseases in the World” took place. At this conference, Igor Bukhtiyarov made a report from the Russian Academy of Sciences and our Institute on the topic “Diagnosis, prevention of occupational diseases followed by rehabilitation in the Russian Federation.”

Participation of Institute in the international scientific programs

The work on the participation of our Institute in the Program of Occupational Health and Safety of the Baltic Sea Region — the Northern Dimension Partnership continues.

The 23rd meeting was held within the framework of the XIV “OCCUPATION and HEALTH” Russian National Congress with the International Participation. Experts from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Russia, Belarus and representatives of various non-governmental international organizations, including the ILO, took part in its work.

The questions of the state of occupational and work-related morbidity in the countries of the Baltic region were discussed. The concept of creation of the new global coalition for the implementation of declarations on occupational health and safety was presented. Two projects implemented within the framework of the partnership were also discussed:

— improving the prevention, detection and reporting of occupational and work-related diseases, as well as emerging risks;

— ensuring the quality of education in the system of occupational health.

In connection with the update of the action plan of the expert group of the Northern Dimension Partnership on Occupational Health and Safety, a business game was conducted to develop a roadmap for its implementation.

Since 2017, our Institute has become a participant in the Framework Program for Scientific Research “Horizon 2020”, which unites the scientific and technological development of the European Union, the development of competitiveness and innovation, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology.

In this program, priority areas are Advanced Science, Industrial Leadership and Social Challenges.

The main goal of the Program is to involve scientific and practical institutions of the Russian Federation in international research projects. The work of our Institute in this program is just beginning.

As part of its implementation on the territory of the European Union and the Russian Federation last year, the Institute participated in the Information Day on “Health, Demographic Change and Quality of Life”, which was held at the Mikhail Lomonosov Moscow State University.

From our Institute, the coordinator of all activities in the program's framework is N. Rubtsova.

Bilateral contracts on cooperation with foreign scientific institutions.

Bilateral cooperation of the Institute with the Institute for the Prevention and Treatment of Occupational Diseases of the Province of Hunan of the People's Republic of China continues.

With the Republic of Belarus, the Institute has longstanding and strong scientific ties. Currently, we have contracts with two scientific institutions of the Republic

— the Republican Center for Labor Protection of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Republic of Belarus and the Scientific and Practical Center for Hygiene of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Belarus.

In the framework of the first agreement, we together with our Belarusian colleagues held the 1st International Scientific Forum “Modern Issues of Health and Safety in the Workplace” in late May — early June 2017. The delegation from our Institute consisted not only of representatives of management and professors, but also of the youth. This was due to the fact that the Competition of scientific works of young scientists and specialists was held within the framework of the event. The winner was Sergey Nikolaev who represented our Institute. This year, in the beginning of June the 2ndForum, co-organized by our Institute, will take place, and our scientists will also be among its participants.

The agreement with the second scientific institution — the Republican Center of Hygiene — is more prolonged. Cooperation with this Center has been going on for several decades. In the autumn of 2017, the Republican Scientific and Practical Conference with International Participation “Health and Environment” was held. This Conference was dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the Center, in which the staff of our Institute also took part.

In addition, it should be noted that the delegation from the Republic of Belarus to the XIV “OCCUPATION and HEALTH” Russian National Congress with International Participation was the most numerous, more than 30 people. The delegation included not only the staff of the above-mentioned scientific institutions, but also many other representatives of the scientific community, business, heads of industrial enterprises, trade union organizations and authorities.

In 2017, within the framework of the cooperation between the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Cuba, our Institute signed a two-sided agreement with the National Institute of Workers' Health in Havana.

On 21 and 22 August 2017, the Seminar and the 2nd meeting of the Russian-Cuban Working Group on Cooperation in the Field of Science, Technology and the Environment of the Intergovernmental Russian-Cuban Commission for Trade-Economic and Scientific-Technical Cooperation were held in Moscow (N. Rubtsova).

At the same time, our Institute was visited by the director of the Institute, Maria Esther Linares, and the director of the National Center of Oncology and Radiobiology, Luis Courbelo Alfonso. In the meeting on the prospects for cooperation, important areas of activity of both institutions were discussed and a decision was adopted on joint work.

For several years the agreement on cooperation with the Serbian Institute of Occupational Health has been continuing.

The contract on cooperation with the National Center of Hygiene and Occupational Diseases of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan, located in Karaganda, has been renewed. Director of the FSBSI “Izmerov Research Institute of Occupational Health” I. Bukhtiyarov became the responsible curator of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe in the work on the preparation and creation of the National Profile of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the health of workers.

The cooperation agreement with the Vietnamese Institute of Occupational Health and Environment was signed several years ago.

The cooperation of the Center for Aviation Medicine of the Institute with the Austrian company-developer of aviation simulators and simulation equipment “AMST-System Technician” has been continuing for several years.

Work continues on a contract for creative cooperation with the Foundation for Information Technology Research in a society located in Zurich.