The Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia, Mikheil Chkhenkeli, participated in the meeting of the Advisory Board of Kutaisi International University (KIU), addressed its members, and talked about the further development plans of the University. The meeting was also attended by the Honorary President of KIU, Professor Wolfgang Hermann, its Provost, Alexander Tevzadze, and various members of the Board, who are well-known and leading scientists from around the world.

Mikheil Chkhenkeli: "I welcome the Honorary President of the University - Professor Wolfgang Hermann and its esteemed members of the International Advisory Board. Thank you again and I am confident that together we will achieve our goals. Your participation in the academic life of Kutaisi International University is extremely important. Thank you for being with us today!

As you know, Kutaisi International University is the main mega-project of the Georgian education system. This year the university started its academic life, which makes us incredibly content.

The scientific-research process at Kutaisi International University is our priority. Our goal is to make it a particularly important hub for education and science in the region.

The author of the idea and its entire concept belongs to Mr. Bidzina Ivanishvili. A university of such magnitude could not have existed in Georgia had it not been for his and his family's extremely important contribution of one billion euros. This is a great gift for our youth, students, the Georgian academic community and the entire country."

Furthermore, Mikheil Chkhenkeli spoke about the future development plans of Kutaisi International University and noted that in the coming years the university will have new academic programs for all three levels of education and each of them will be based on the academic programs of the world's leading universities. The current programs, which are analogous to the academic programs of the Technical University of Munich, allow students to receive a higher level of education as their peers receive abroad.

The Minister highlighted the scientific-research side of Kutaisi International University and spoke about the Hadron Therapy Center, which will start functioning on university premises in a few years’ time. Currently, two cyclotrons are being manufactured and assembled by the world's leading manufacturer of cancer proton therapy equipment (IBA). This project is also fully funded by the Cartu Foundation. Mikheil Chkhenkeli noted that one cyclotron will be used to treat cancer with ultra-modern methods, whereas the second one will be mainly utilized for the scientific research processes. Additionally, Mikheil Chkhenkeli noted that the world's leading researchers in the field of oncology and proton therapy are ready to conduct scientific research procedures in Kutaisi together with Georgian scientists. Subsequently, Kutaisi International University and Hadron Therapy Center will become an academic and scientific center of world importance.

The meeting of the Advisory Board was attended by the following members: Chairman of the Board, Sebastian Schmidt, Scientific Director of the Helmholtz Center in Dresden-Rosendorf (HZDR) (Germany), Professor Raymond Mirabel, Director of Medical faculty, Center for Proton Therapy, University Clinic,  Bernd Neumeier, Director of the Institute for Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-5) (Germany) of Jülich Research Center. Roberto Orekia, Scientific Director of the European Institute of Oncology (Italy), Prof. Johnny Shah, Director of the Institute for Neurobiology and Medicine (INM-4) (Germany) of Jülich Research Center, Prof. Ahim Stahl, Professor at RWTH Aachen University (Germany), Prof. Hans Stroer, director of the Institute for Nuclear Physics at Julich Research Center (Germany), and Zensho Yoshida, professor at the University of Tokyo (Japan).