Azərbaycan Dövlət
İqtİsad Unİversİtetİ

The presentation of the “REFRESH” project has been held at UNEC, which was the winner of the Erasmus+ program of the European Commission in the activity type KA2 (Improving skills in higher education).

The presentation of the winning project on “Green and sustainable global economic improvement in Azerbaijani universities: renewable energy sources and climate change mitigation (REFRESH)” was attended by the Ambassador of the European Union to Azerbaijan Peter Mikhalko, director of the State Agency for Renewable Energy Sources under the Ministry of Energy Javid Abdullayev, rectors of SSU, MSU, LSU, and the Azerbaijan University of Technology, director of Erasmus+ Azerbaijan National Office Parviz Bagirov and other guests.

Rector of UNEC Professor Adalat Muradov welcomed the guests and informed them about the project. He said that the purpose of the “REFRESH” project with a total cost of 703 thousand euros is to make significant contributions to the implementation of the tasks arising from the strategic document “Azerbaijan 2030: National Priorities for socio-economic development” in addition to national personnel training in universities on renewable energy sources. The project covers a period of 3 years. The consortium consists of 15 partners, including 6 local, 4 European universities (University of Barcelona in Spain, University of Bologna in Italy, Royal University of Technology in Sweden, Technical University of Denmark), and governmental and non-governmental organizations. The Rector expressed his confidence that the project would bring significant contributions to the sustainable development of Azerbaijan.

Peter Mikhalko, the ambassador of the European Union to Azerbaijan, pointed out that green economy and renewable energy sources are among the priority directions in the world, and highly appreciated the project coordinated by UNEC in this regard. He also emphasized that the participation of universities in such projects is important and will play an important role in training new personnel for the country. Noting that the budget of the Erasmus+ program is 30 billion euros, the ambassador called on the country’s universities to actively participate in the projects.

Javid Abdullayev, director of the State Agency for Renewable Energy Sources under the Ministry of Energy, said that renewable energy and green economy are included in “Azerbaijan 2030: National Priorities for socio-economic Development” and expanding green energy production is one of the important issues for our country. Appreciating UNEC’s implementation of important projects related to renewable energy and the green economy, J.Abdullayev pointed out that the Agency will provide the necessary support to the university in this direction.

​​​​​​​Parviz Bagirov, director of the Erasmus+ Azerbaijan National Office, spoke about the importance of the project, as well as information about cooperation with universities within the Erasmus+ program. Stating that Azerbaijani universities have the highest percentage among the countries that applied to the Erasmus+ project in the region, he called it a gratifying situation.

Then the rectors of local higher education institutions, which are partners of the project, spoke about the important role of the project in the direction of socio-economic development of the country, training of national personnel in the field of renewable energy, conducting research, and development of regional universities.

The event continued with discussions with the participation of representatives of local and European Union partner universities.