The development of nuclear research and technology to monitor environmental radioactivity. This is the subject of the agreement signed on 9 April in Tirana by the Italian Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) and the Albanian Environmental Agency (Agjencia Kombetare e Mjedisit, AKM). The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by the president of the INFN Fernando Ferroni and the director of the AKM Julian Beqiri, in the presence of representatives from the Albanian Ministry of the Environment and Ministry of Education and Science and from the Italian Embassy in Albania. It promotes the development of joint research projects to be submitted to international financial institutions and the EU. Having recently been granted “official candidate” status for membership of the EU, Albania must now adopt standards and procedures to monitor natural and artificial radioactivity in the country. The MoU represents the natural continuation of an educational programme that has seen the participation of many young Albanians working as undergraduate, PhD and post-doctoral researchers at the INFN Legnaro National Laboratory (LNL) and universities involved in the ITALRAD (ITALian RADioactivity) project. The MoU between the INFN and AKM is of strategic importance for the cooperation and development of projects that will also be included in the EU framework programme for research and technological development.
