University of Malta and HIT have agreed to broaden their academic collaboration

Dr. Refael Barkan, Head of Research, Innovation and International Ventures Authority at HIT and Dr. Guy Yoskovitz, Head of International Ventures, have returned lately from a visit to Malta.

This visit took place after initial connection was established at the "Erasmus+ Contact Seminar with Southern Mediterranean Countries", that took place in October 2017, and followed by a successful Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility application that was selected to be funded by the EU.

The main goal of this visit was to establish a broad collaboration with the University of Malta, based on academic relations in the fields of research, Staff and students' exchange and European programs.

During the visit, important discussions with relevant representatives from different disciplines have discussed possible channels for collaboration with Dr. Barkan and Dr. Yoskovitz.  

Another main goal was to establish staff and student exchange program with the University of Malta, and together with Ms Victoria Gauci (Acting Deputy Head of the International Office) and Mr.Kersten Calleja (Erasmus+ ICM Coordinator, regarding staff and students' exchange.

In matters of advancing collaborations in R&D, collaborations in European programs, conferences, joint academic programs etc., meetings were held with Prof. Joseph Cannataci, in regards to Cyber Security Research. In addition, in order to promote collaborations in the fields of Digital Healt and Bio-medical research, some meetings took place at the main university hospital in Malta, with Dr. Stephanie Bezzina Wettinger, Department of Applied Medical Sciences and her research group. 

Dr. Barkan and Dr. Yoskovitz have also met with Dr. Axel Steuwer Director of the Research Support Service Directorate (RSSD) and his team: Ms. Angie Mifsud, Dr. Christian Spiteri, Dr. Ingrid Vella, Ms. Maria Calleja and discussed many possibilities for joint ventures in the R&D arena. 

In addition, meeting was held with the Head of the Department of Mathematics Prof. David Buhagiar and his team, Prof Ernest Cachia (Dean of the Faculty for Information and Communication Technology) and Prof. Georgios Yannakakis is the director of the Institute of Digital Games, in order to discuss prospective collaboration with the faculty of Sciences and the faculty for instructional technologies, respectively. 

The meetings were fruitful and both institutions' representatives have expressed sincere hope and willingness to further broaden and develop these future collaborations.

Released: 10.4.2019