On 10 April 2025, in Ulaanbaatar, dr Rafał Sikora (Department of Regional and Deposit Geology) presented dr Turbold Sukhbaatar, Institute of Paleontology and Geology of Mongolian Academy of Sciences (MAS), an invitation from Prof. Krzysztof Szamałek, Director of PGI-NRI, to establish mutual scientific cooperation between both institutes.

Dr Turbold Sukhbaatar is well known to Polish geologists participating in the regular Central European Tectonic Studies Groups conference, which he attended while conducting research for his doctoral thesis at Charles University in Prague.

Dr Rafał Sikora (right) extended an invitation to dr Turbold Sukhbaatar for mutual cooperation

The initiative was very well received by the Mongolian side, and during the meeting, a Letter of Intent on Scientific Cooperation was signed, which will be implemented in the fields of Earth sciences, environmental protection, climate research, and the promotion of geodiversity and geological heritage. Both parties declared that, in addition to jointly implementing scientific projects and events, they will strive to cooperate in the field of geological education and the popularisation of Earth sciences, as well as the exchange of personnel and the improvement of their scientific qualifications.

The Polish Geological Institute – National Research Institute resumed research in Mongolia in the first decade of the 21st century. Until now, work has focused on the search for raw materials, which is being carried out in cooperation with the Mongolian Geological Service. Cooperation with the Mongolian Academy of Sciences and the signing of a Letter of Intent is an important step towards intensifying scientific research, which has very good prospects. The cooperation agreement will be concluded later this year.

During the meeting, geologists from the Mongolian Academy of Sciences were presented with opportunities for developing and publishing the results of geological research in the northern part of the Gobi, carried out in cooperation with the Institute of Archaeology of the University of Wrocław, which at PGI-NRI is supervised by dr Rafał Sikora. Several articles have already been published in highly regarded scientific journals, and further publications are being submitted to journal editors.

The meeting also discussed the progress of the PGI-NRI research project (led by R. Sikora) entitled ‘Mass movements on mountain slopes in the SW part of the Khangai Mountains (Mongolia) in the light of climatic factors and tectonics of the basement – remote sensing analyses using machine learning methods’, in which, alongside colleagues from MAS, scientists from the Department of Geoinformatics at the AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków are also participating.