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International Cooperation

On Tuesday, 8 November, Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) signed an agreement of mutual cooperation with the Hon. Prof. M.S. Bokarius Kharkiv Research Institute of Forensic Examinations (KhRIFE) in Ukraine.

Prof. Tatjana Koķe, Vice-Rector for Studies, Dr. iur. Jānis Grasis, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Law, and Karina Palkova, Head of the Law programme, represented RSU at the signing. KhRIFE was represented by its Director, Prof. Dr. Oleksandr Klyuyev, the Institute’s Deputy Director Prof. Olekh Ukhrovetsky, and Olena Agapova, Head of the Institute’s International Cooperation Department.

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RSU implements a Police Work study programme that trains senior Ministry of the Interior and other law enforcement institution specialists. RSU is the leading university in Latvia in the field of forensic education, which is why this cooperation with the leading Ukrainian forensic institute is especially significant.

KhRIFE is the leading scientific research institution in Ukraine. It was founded in 1925 and has been providing the state and society with qualified, objective and independent forensic expertise both in Ukraine and abroad for 97 years. The Institute’s laboratories are accredited in accordance with quality standards ISO/IEC 17020:2014 and ISO/IEC 17025:2017 and they perform about 80 different types of forensic analyses.

Šā gada 28. augustā ar Ukrainas prezidenta lēmumu par starptautisko atzīšanu un nozīmīgu ieguldījumu tiesu ekspertīzes un kriminālistikas attīstībā institūtam tika piešķirts Nacionālā zinātniskā centra goda statuss.

On 28 August this year, the Institute was awarded the honorary status of a National Scientific Centre as per a decision of the President of Ukraine for their international recognition and significant contribution to the development of forensic science.

Since 2018, KhRIFE has been preparing Ukrainian and international students for postgraduate and doctoral studies where they have the possibility to obtain a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) or a Doctor of Law (Dr. iur.) degree.

Cooperation between RSU and KhRIFE began one year ago when both insitutions participated in a call for project proposals and prepared a join scientific publication, as well with their work on the editorial board of both institutions’ scientific journals - Socrates (RSU) and Archives of Criminology and Forensic Sciences (Ukraine) - with the aim of strengthening researchers' scientific potential as well as strengthening both institutions’ position in the European Research Area.

There is also a special connection between Rīga Stradiņš University and the National Scientific Centre of Ukraine: Sergei and Leonid Bokarius, the grandsons of the Institute’s founder Nikolai Bokarius, have revealed a previously unknown historical fact: in the 1950s their father, Prof. Vitaliy Bokarius, actively collaborated with Prof. Pauls Stradiņš and in summer of 1956 Prof. Bokarius and his family vacationed in Prof. Stradiņš’ summer house.  After their visit, Prof. Bokarius drew a sketch of this house, but it has unfortunately not survived to this day.