Moscow – PhosAgro ("the Company") (Moscow Exchange, LSE: PHOR), a leading global vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producer, today signed a partnership agreement with UNESCO establishing a grants programme to support promising projects proposed by young scientists as part of the joint Green Chemistry for Life project.
UNESCO Director-General, Irina Bokova, and PhosAgro CEO, Maxim Volkov, signed the partnership agreement at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. The Permanent Delegate of the Russian Federation to UNESCO Eleonora Mitrofanova, the Executive Secretary of UNESCO’s International Basic Sciences Programme (IBSP) Maciej Nalecz, and the President of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) Professor Nicole Mareau were also in attendance at the signing ceremony.
The objective of the partnership between PhosAgro and UNESCO, to be implemented in close cooperation with IUPAC, is to enhance global international capacity to harness green chemistry to help address today’s global sustainable development challenges.
Financial and scientific support will be given to young scientists from around the world who are working on development and application of advanced chemistry technologies for issues like environmental protection, human health, food supplies and the use of natural resources. Projects proposed by young scientists will be evaluated, selected and launched by an international scientific jury.
This initiative represents the first time in the history of UNESCO and the entire United Nations system that a Russian Company is providing extra-budgetary funding for a project. The total financing from PhosAgro for the five year Green Chemistry for Life project, which may be prolonged, is USD 1.4 million.
PhosAgro Management Board Chairman Maxim Volkov said: “I am extremely pleased to launch this project, which is the first of its kind to be sponsored by a Russian company. We view the Green Chemistry for Life project as an investment in the whole planet, and a successful example of how science and industry can unite under the auspices of UNESCO to create new knowledge aimed at protecting the environment. I also believe that this project will help improve the prestige of chemistry and lead to more young scientists choosing to study this promising science. It is these young scientists who will be the source of future breakthroughs in green chemistry.”
In January 2011, during the official opening ceremony of the International Year of Chemistry at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, PhosAgro first took the initiative to propose the launching of a partnership with UNESCO for harnessing the talents of young scientists in green chemistry.