About eighty participants from Member States participated in a landmark occasion at the Side Event entitled “Presentation of the International Nuclear Management Academy (INMA)” during the 60th IAEA General Conference. The University of Manchester (UOM) has become the first INMA Full Member that delivers the INMA-endorsed Master’s Programme in Nuclear Technology Management (NTM). The INMA recognition letter was awarded from Mr Chudakov, DDG-NE to Dr Heath, Director of the UOM Dalton Nuclear Institute. The ceremony was followed by signing Cooperation Agreement between the IAEA and the UOM. At the same time, the INMA has welcomed the second official partner after having the National Research Nuclear University (NRNU) MEPhI in Russian Federation.
The IAEA developed the INMA framework in collaboration with several nuclear engineering and business universities and stakeholders, and defined common requirements for an INMA Master’s degree Programme in NTM. INMA master’s programmes in NTM specify a common set of competency requirements that graduates should acquire to become competent managers. They comprise four areas of competencies: the external environment, nuclear technology, management and leadership.
Mr Chudakov recalled that the first partnership was established with the NRNU MEPhI exactly one year ago during the previous General Conference. He congratulated on the recent progress and achievements in the INMA: the approval of the Terms of Reference for the INMA, the first Annual Meeting hosted by the UOM including the Steering Committee meeting and the Advisory Board meeting, planning a Peer Review Mission at the NRNU MEPhI in December, and the finalizing the IAEA publication on the INMA.
He offered his best wishes for the continued success and growth of the INMA. “Qualified human resources are a cornerstone of safe and sustainable nuclear technologies” he pointed out in his opening remarks. Emphasizing that INMA can help build competence to assist Member States in ensuring their workforce, he appreciated Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) for its extra-budgetary contributions to this initiative. Mr Kitano, Japanese Ambassador of Permanent Mission welcomed progress achieved in the INMA moving from a planning phase to a running phase.
Dr Heath’s presentation followed Mr Chudakov’s opening remarks. “We recognized the need to teach more than just technical training for the nuclear sector” she clarified the reason for launching the INMA Programme. She outlined the UK’s challenges for nuclear decommissioning and geological disposal as well as its plans for a new build programme and concluded that this was creating a real need to preserve R&D expertise and the demand for competent managers with awareness of a broad range of issues.
She emphasized nuclear leaders and managers need a “T-shaped” understanding of nuclear technology management: breadth of knowledge in which their work sits and depth of knowledge in their technical area. The INMA Programmes requirements cover the breadth of such competencies to guide universities and educational institutions to design their programmes flexibly to meet their needs.
Milestone of the INMA Members: the UOM and NRNU
The UOM and NRNU MEPhI have been actively involved in the INMA initiative since 2014 and contributed to the development of collaboration framework and the INMA Programme requirements. Interestingly the two universities have the different approaches. The UOM’s programmes target industry-based part-time students, while the MEPhI targets full-time students who graduated from bachelor degree in science, technology and managements.
The UOM provides busy nuclear professionals with modular course combining e-learning and practices. Some of the UOM NTM courses are taught by industry experts. Dr. Heath recognized that close industry involvement and support ensures that students get the best of what both academia and industry can offer. She concluded that the INMA Programme needs to be flexible, responsive and integrated with industry adapting its rapid changes.
On the other hand, The MEPhI conducts the first three semesters at full time. Three modules on technical, economical and international relation are designed to deepen and expand each area as described “T-shaped” knowledge. However, the MEPhI programmes also give flexibility to students, said Mr Andrei Kosilov, Professor of the NRNU. He envisaged that some courses would start in the evening for the sake of students who may participate in the internship course. MEPhI’s NTM programmes have already started this fall and will receive the IAEA Peer Review Assessment in December 2016.
Two documents on the INMA
The Peer Review Missions serve as an IAEA review process to evaluate and recognize each NTM programmes in compliance with the INMA requirements, while the Annual Meeting provide a forum among the INMA Members and candidates to discuss and exchange experiences and insights on the NTM programmes together with industry stakeholders. Another important element of the INMA initiative is to record what have been discussed and agreed among them at a series of meetings and missions since 2014.
One document, which was already approved by the IAEA, is the Terms of References for the INMA (TOR). It clarifies the responsibilities and privileges of the INMA Members and includes approved templates for both the INMA Cooperation Agreements (i.e. required for INMA Associate Members) and for optional Intellectual Property Sharing Agreements. The TOR also clarifies the use of official INMA logo (above), the make-up and role of the INMA Steering Committee, Advisory Board, Annual Meeting and Student Forum. Finally, it describes the IAEA supporting tools such as the online e-learning platform “CLP4NET” (Cyber Learning Platform for Network Education and Training) that can be used to archive and share educational reference materials.
Another document, which is currently under preparation, is the IAEA Nuclear Energy Series publication entitled “INMA Master’s Programmes in Nuclear Technology Management”. It describes a set of common requirements for competency area, the learning outcomes and suggested teaching topics recommended to achieve them. It also covers a peer review process including some self-assessment sheets, which help all interested Member States to understand the INMA assessment scope, objectives and methodology, including the assessment criteria, process and documentation requirements.
Technical Cooperation framework to support the INMA
The IAEA’s Technical Cooperation (TC) Department has approved an Inter-regional Project entitled: “Developing Master’s Degree Nuclear Technology Management Programmes though the International Nuclear Management Academy (INMA) Initiative (Pilot Phase)” (INT/0/091) as an extra-budgetary funded project. Member States are being encouraged to consider supporting this project with voluntary contributions. Developing countries may consider applying for support of their INMA initiatives under the project. These countries are encouraged to work closely with their TC National Liaison Officer (NLO) and ensure activities such as an Initial INMA Assist Visit and an INMA Peer Review Assessment Mission are factored into the work plans when preparing the programme cycle and budget. Additional funds may be requested to support the development of curriculum and e-Learning material, the hosting of workshops and/or stakeholder meetings, and even student fellowships.
