By David André Højlund Graff, AAU Communication and Public Affairs
Translated by LeeAnn Iovanni, AAU Communication and Public Affairs.
Photos: Clarice Sivesgaard Abacan

Right where the Southern Bug River flows into the Black Sea from the north lies Ukrainian Mykolaiv. The city, like Aalborg, has an engineering university, and the two sister cities are similar, according to Ole Egberg Mikkelsen, Denmark's ambassador to Ukraine. Surrounded, as they both are, by fertile agricultural areas and with a constant wind like the one coming from the waters of the Limfjord.

A delegation from Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding in Mykolaiv visited AAU last week to investigate the possibilities of a collaboration between the two universities.

"We have engineering expertise in common, and there could be potential in sharing knowledge and technologies. Not only about ship construction, but also about green fuel for heavy transport, robot-controlled production, drones and so on," explains Olav Geil, Vice Dean for Education, Faculty of Engineering and Science, AAU.

Initially, while the war rages in Ukraine, it will be about AAU making its contribution to 'a little Denmark by the Black Sea'. According to Ole Egberg Mikkelsen, this is Mykolaiv’s dream.

Rector Eugeniy Trushliakov of the National University of Shipbuilding hopes that a collaboration can also promote the green transition:

We need to find out how our teaching can help the maritime industry in Ukraine be ready for the challenge of the green transition," he says.

"And not least, the plan is also to share inspiration on working with problem-based learning and involving the local community in concrete, binding collaboration" Olav Geil adds.

Read Ambassador Ole Egberg Mikkelsen’s report from Mykolaiv here (in Danish)

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