The State Higher Educational Institution “National Mining University” (NMU, Dnipro, Ukraine) in conjunction with Technical University “Freiberg Mining Academy” (TU BAF, Germany) is being implemented the four-year educational project “Biotechnology in Mining – Integration of New Technologies into Educational Practice” (01.01.2015 – 31.12.2018). The project is supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) of Germany under the program “Professionally Linked Partnership with Universities from Developing Countries”.

Within the framework of the project, Prof. Dr. Herman Heilmeier, Professor of the Institute of Biosciences of TU BAF, has visited NMU. During the visit, a round table with NMU administration, academic staff and students was held. The main topics for round table discussions were the following:

       - Evaluation of the results achieved due to implementation of the first two years of the project (speaker: Prof. Dr. Hermann Heilmeier, TU BAF);

       - Detailed elaboration of the structure of new bachelor and master courses on biomining;

       - Discussion about topics and research results of the master theses performed by NMU students under the double supervising from NMU and TU BAF;

       - Assessment of the prospects in lab establishment at NMU for practical trainings and research in the field of biotechnology in mining;

       - Discussion about the prospects for the academic and scientific cooperation expansion through the creation of joint educational programs and development of              academic and research projects;

       - Organization of International Conference “Applied Biotechnology in Biomining” to be held at NMU April 25-27, 2018.

During the stay at NMU Prof. Dr. H. Heilmeier has lectured two lectures for students specialized in the area of Ecology and Environmental Engineering on the topic of phytoremediation of the disturbed lands, as well as modern microbiological technologies for the leaching toxic and/or valuable elements from industrial wastes.

For a significant contribution to the development of international cooperation between NMU and TU BAF Prof. Dr. Heilmeier was solemnly awarded by the medal named after O.M. Terpigoryev.

Thus, we can confidently state that the successful implementation of the bilateral DAAD project at NMU is a striking example of the integration of new educational programs into a join European educational space and an element of the modernization of the Ukrainian higher education system in accordance with the nowadays needs and the challenges of the future.