The main objective of the proposed CORONA II project is to enhance the safety of nuclear installations through further improvement of the training capabilities aimed at building up the necessary personnel competencies. Specific objective of the proposed CORONA II project is to proceed with the development of state-of-the-art regional training center for VVER competence (which will be called CORONA Academy), whose pilot implementation through CORONA project (2011-2014) proved to be viable solution for supporting transnational mobility and lifelong learning amongst VVER operating countries. The project aims at continuation of the European cooperation and support in the area for preservation and further development of expertise in the nuclear field by improvement of higher education and training. This objective will be realized through networking between universities, research organisations, regulatory bodies, industry and any other organisations involved in the application of nuclear science, ionising radiation and nuclear safety. The proposed CORONA Academy will maintain the nuclear expertise by gathering the existing and generating new knowledge in the VVER area. It will bring together the most experienced trainers in the different aspects of the area within EU and abroad, thus overcoming the mobility challenge that stands ahead the nuclear education and training community. The selected form of the CORONA Academy, together with the online availability of the training opportunities will allow trainees from different locations to access the needed knowledge on demand. The available set of courses will cover the whole range of training of VVER specialists from the university until reaching high professional skills and competences in the area.

This CREMLINplus project proposal is about European-Russian scientific and technical collaboration in the field of research infrastructures. It takes up and addresses all recommendations that have been worked out in close European-Russian collaboration within three years of the Horizon 2020 project CREMLIN. CREMLINplus is a voluminous project, a grand endeavour, setting out to fully implement jointly elaborated European-Russian collaboration roadmaps and to ensure that the framework conditions will be improved and continually harmonized. The project will operate in two directions, following two main strategic goals: (1) CREMLINplus will strongly advance the five Russian megascience projects in close European-Russian collaboration. This objective refers to the technical preparation of the megascience projects for European and international utilisation. The project will allow European-Russian collaborative top teams to develop and deliver finest, novel cutting-edge technologies for both the Russian megascience projects and their European RI counterparts. (2) CREMLINplus will prepare a defined set of Russian research infrastructures, hosted at eleven laboratories, for not only Russian, but also European and international access and utilisation. For this purpose, suitable framework conditions for opening and accessing these Russian facilities will be developed and implemented. A comprehensive base of knowledge and expertise for RI managers and scientists at various levels will be created. The 35 European and Russian participants of the project have come together to build the broad and balanced consortium, connected through a history of trustful collaboration. They are the relevant entities in the domain of research infrastructures in Europe and in Russia, and thus provide the necessary strength, commitment and power to implement the project plan.