On 5 October, the Kazan office of the Bolgar Islamic academy hosted a working meeting on the implementation of the concept of the Bolgar scientific and educational cluster (BSEC).

The meeting was attended by Abdul-Hakim Sultygov, Chief Advisor of the Office of the President of the Russian Federation on Domestic Policy, Executive Secretary of the Academy’s Board of Trustees, Marat Khisameev, Deputy Head of the Department of Internal Policy of the Republic of Tatarstan, Farkhat Khusnutdinov, Rector of the Academy, and Rafik Mukhametshin, Director of the Council for Islamic Education, Rector of the Russian Islamic Institute (RII) and Kazan Islamic University. The meeting was also attended by Rustem Gilmutdinov and Ruslan Tagirov, vice-rectors for educational and scientific activities of the academy, Vice-rector for scientific activities Rafis Zakirov Russian Islamic institute, director of Kazan Madrasah named after the 1000th anniversary of the adoption of Islam Ilyas Ziganshin, director of the Urussinsk madrasah “Fanis” Marat Mardanshin and deputy director of the Kazan madrasah “Muhammadiyah” Zulfat Gabdullin. In addition, in the workshop, representatives of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan took part: Director of the Marjani Institute of History Radik Salikhov and Director of the Centre for Islamic Studies Rinat Pateev.

During the meeting, Rafik Mukhametshin made a presentation of the concept of the Bolgar scientific and educational cluster adopted by the academy’s founding council. Within the framework of the discussion of the priority steps for the implementation of the Bolgar scientific-educational cluster concept in the Republic of Tatarstan, the experience of teaching the basics of research activities” in the madrasah “Muhammadiyya”, the Russian Islamic institute’s experience in developing students’ research skills and the prospects of interaction between the Bolgar Islamic academy, Russian Islamic institute and Tatarstan madrasahs in the scientific and educational sphere were discussed.

As a result of the workshop, it was decided to create a working group of its participants to summarize the proposals and develop priority projects for the implementation of the Bolgar scientific-educational cluster concept in the Republic of Tatarstan under the scientific leadership of Rafik Mukhametshin. Rustem Gilmutdinov, vice-rector of the academy, was appointed as the coordinator of the working group. The next meeting of the working group is scheduled for the first decade of November 2023.