Zaev – Damjanović: Support and joint work on SEEIIST project

In her capacity of the Chairperson of the SEEIIST project Steering Committee, Minister of Science Dr. Sanja Damjanović met today with the Prime Minister of Republic of North Macedonia Mr. Zoran Zaev. Minister Damjanović invited Prime Minister Zaev to support the SEEIIST project by signing a Memorandum of Cooperation Framework, drafted by the members of the SEEIIST Steering Committee. Previously, in early March this year in Podgorica, the Memorandum was harmonised with the representatives of the ministries of foreign affairs of the region in terms of international law aspects.

Prime Minister Zaev reaffirmed full support of Republic of North Macedonia to the SEEIIST project, as well as the readiness to sign the Memorandum.

As a large infrastructural project for sustainable technologies, SEEIIST is entering the next phase, thanks to the initial financial support of the European Commission, as well as the open support of renowned institutions – CERN in Geneva and GSI in Darmstadt. With firm expert support of such prestigious institutions, SEEIIST project cannot but succeed. Thanks to this support, SEEIIST design will be based on a technology that is more advanced than the existing technologies of the centres for “Hadron cancer therapy with protons and heavy ions”, with only 12 such centres existing in the world. However, implementation of the SEEIIST project exactly here, in the South East Europe region, requires firm political commitment of the entire region.

The day before, Minister Damjanović presented the SEEIIST project in the Academy of Sciences and Arts of the Republic of North Macedonia (MANU), within the manifestation entitled “CERN Days in North Macedonia”. On that occasion, she indicated the importance of the SEEIIST project for improvement of cooperation in the field of research, innovation and technological development in the region, as well as for the treatment of our cancer patients with state-of-the-art methods. The minister particularly highlighted the role of CERN as one of the hosts of the SEEIIST Design Study Phase. In addition to Minister Damjanović, those present at the seminar were also addressed by CERN representatives: Prof. Dr. Christoph Schäfer, Prof. Dr. Ludwik Dobrzynski and Prof. Dr. Daniel Denegri.

Minister Damjanović has paid a visit to North Macedonia at the invitation of SEEIIST Steering Committee members, Prof. Dr. Petar Atanasov, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of North Macedonia, and Prof. Dr. Mimoza Ristova from the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics of the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University.