Metinvest Polytechnic continues to strengthen global connections that foster a modern educational and research environment and open the door to cutting-edge global engineering technologies. Another important step in this direction was the signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Spanish engineering company SARRALLE, which implements innovative solutions for the steelmaking and industrial sectors in various countries around the world.
During a working meeting in Azpeitia, Spain, representatives of Metinvest Polytechnic and SARRALLE formally exchanged signed copies of the document. The Memorandum was signed by the university’s Rector, Oleksandr Povazhnyi, and the company’s co-owner and Chief Financial Officer, Unai Larrañaga Elorza. Metinvest Group was represented at the meeting by Ihor Navolniev, university ambassador and postgraduate student at Metinvest Polytechnic, and Ivan Volovnenko, lead process engineer at the Engineering and Technology Department of Metinvest Sichsteel’s Directorate for Technologies and Best Practices, who contributed to the discussion of technical aspects of the cooperation. The parties identified the initial areas of cooperation, covering educational, research, and technological initiatives.
Oleksandr POVAZHNYI, Rector of Metinvest Polytechnic, emphasised the strategic value of the partnership:
"Partnering with SARRALLE unlocks new opportunities for our university. We are enhancing international collaboration, integrating European expertise into the educational process, and creating broader access to modern engineering practices for scholars, faculty, and postgraduate students. We stay the course: deep integration into the European research space and the development of modern engineering education in Ukraine.
The collaboration encompasses guest lectures, webinars and workshops conducted by SARRALLE's experts, the company's involvement in the design and enhancement of curricula, the launch of joint courses and internship opportunities, collaborative R&D projects in metallurgy, automation, energy efficiency and decarbonisation, the preparation of grant proposals for Horizon Europe, Erasmus+ Capacity Building, EIT Manufacturing, EU Funding and other programmes, the exchange of research findings and publications, the formation of a technical working group, the annual SARRALLE Technical Day, the development of demonstration stands and mini-laboratories, and technical visits and workshops dedicated to discussing technological advancement and fostering an integrated "science-education-industry" environment.
For the university, has become a continuation of cooperation that has already begun. In the summer, Metinvest Polytechnic post-graduate student Ihor Navolniev, who has worked for more than 18 years at Metinvest Group and specialises in identifying and minimising industrial risks, visited SARRALLE’s production site in Luxembourg as part of his research work. This introductory visit allowed him to gain insight into modern European engineering solutions – from decarbonisation approaches to robotic technologies implemented without stopping production.
"The internship at SARRALLE’s production facilities gave me a valuable, comprehensive understanding of how innovative technologies are implemented at a European enterprise – from the organisation of production processes to the mechanisms used to optimise them. For a researcher, this is not merely observation but a foundation for further in-depth study. And most importantly, many of the best practices I saw can realistically be adapted for Ukraine to boost its production efficiency and technological development," said Ihor NAVOLNIEV.
The signing of the Memorandum strengthens Metinvest Polytechnic's position as a university that trains a new generation of engineers and creates learning conditions that are closely aligned with contemporary industry, opening new horizons for the advancement of engineering education in Ukraine.
