The Ambassador of Israel’s visit to RSU: strengthening cooperation in innovation, science and medical education

On Tuesday, 18 March, the Ambassador of Israel to Latvia Sandra Simoviča visited Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) to discuss current cooperation and future development opportunities in the fields of innovation, science and medical education.

RSU students are already gaining clinical experience at one of the world's largest hospitals - Sheba Medical Center - ranked among the top eight hospitals in the world. This cooperation demonstrates the high quality of studies that RSU offers, and the opportunities for students to gain international experience in practice.

The meeting highlighted the collaboration between RSU and Israeli researchers in five scientific projects, and the University's commitment is to further develop a culture of innovation by fostering entrepreneurial thinking among students and researchers - as idea generators and implementers. This focus will also be emphasised at this year's RSU Research Week, where Tamar Raz, an Israeli innovation expert from Hadassah University Medical Center’s technology transfer and innovation company, will be presenting at the innovation session on 26 March.

Another important area of cooperation is the development of simulation technologies in medical education, where RSU aims to strengthen cooperation with Israeli experts. In this context, military medical education was also discussed, which is equally accessible to both Latvian and international students. Starting next year, RSU plans to expand the military medicine course for residents, doctors in lifelong learning programmes, and sport education students.

Currently, 28 students from Israel are studying at RSU, while previously, this number was about 60. The University is committed to continue its efforts to strengthen Israeli students’ interest in studying in Latvia and to offer increasingly diverse international education opportunities.