The following KNRTU Departments participated in the study visits: Foreign Languages for Professional Communication (Head of Department Dr. Julia Ziyatdinova, Associate Professor Elvira Valeeva, Associate Professor Lilia Gazizulina), Physical and Colloid Chemistry (Head of Department Dr. Yuriy Galyametdinov, Full Professor Natalia Selivanova, Associate Professor Artem Bezrukov, Associate Professor Kseniya Romanova), Office of Postgraduate Studies (Head of the Office Elmira Kushaeva), General Chemical Technology (PhD Student Anton Sirotkin).

The first two study visits took place on June 17-22 in the University of Helsinki and the University of Latvia. The participants learnt a lot about the structure of training doctoral students at these universities, and had a chance to see the infrastructure of research in science. The group was very excited to see Uni¬versity of Helsinki Ac¬cel¬er¬ator Labor¬at¬ory where ion beams offer unique opportunities for modifying various characteristics of metals, semiconductors, ceramics, plastics and organics, and of fabricating new materials from them.

The KNRTU representatives had an opportunity to meet the Rector of the University of Latvia, the project coordinator, Indriķis Muižnieks, and to discuss the future cooperation between the institutions. Moreover, in Riga, the Russian delegation represented by Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Moscow State University of Geodesy and Cartography, Russian State Vocational Pedagogical University and KNRTU, gave a report on the system of doctoral education in our country.

During the second study visit to Brunel University, London, the participants received a hands-on experience of developing soft competencies of doctoral students through presentation skills, academic writing skills and team work. Brunel staff shared their expertise in PhD students enrolment and training and also presented the procedures of submitting the thesis and preparing for the viva. These procedures appear to be quite different from those in the Russian universities. This study visit was of a certain interest for the faculty members from the Department of Foreign Languages for Professional Communication, as many of the new methods learnt can and will be used to improve foreign language training of doctoral students at KNRTU.

The third study visit took place in Jagiellonian University in Kraków on July 8-12 and focused on training PhD students majoring in chemistry. The Faculty of Chemistry greeted the consortium members, presented their structure of training doctoral students, showed their chemical laboratories and departments. KNRTU representatives had a chance to meet researchers and professors from Departments of Physical Chemistry and Chemical Technology and discuss possible joint research topics. This study visit was especially interesting for our Department of Physical and Colloid Chemistry. The hosts arranged special meetings for the representatives of this department at the Department of Physical Chemistry at Jagellonian University where they found mutually interesting topics for future research cooperation such as soft matter systems for drug delivery, computational methods in physical chemistry and microfluidics. The PhD student also presented information about research activities of his department.

Participation of PhD students in study visits is a special feature of the MODEST project. In future, special summer schools for PhD students will be held within the project framework.

The MODEST project started in November 2018 and will continue until November 2021. The main objective of the project is to modernize the training of graduate students and to improve teaching methods. One of the tasks of the project is to design courses for postgraduates aimed at developing their soft skills and improving the quality of their research. The most relevant areas of work are scientific communication, writing research papers, preparing conference presentations, writing project proposals, looking for funding opportunities for research and teaching, research methodology for STEM, working in an interdisciplinary and virtual environment.

The project is aimed at integrating the best European practices for improving the quality of postgraduate training and effective international cooperation in research and education.

The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

⚹The European Commission's support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.