Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) and MARA University of Technology (UiTM, Malaysia) will launch a joint research center focused on artificial intelligence systems. The agreement to establish the center was reached by FEFU Vice Rector for International Relations Evgeny Vlasov and Vice Chancellor of Malaysia’s largest university, Shahri bin Sahibuddin, during the 5th meeting of the Joint Russian-Malaysian Commission on Economic, Scientific, Technical, and Cultural Cooperation.

The agreement to establish a joint Center for Artificial Intelligence Systems (CAIS) is one of the key outcomes of the commission’s meeting, which is chaired on the Russian side by Valery Falkov, Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, and on the Malaysian side by Zambri Abdul Kadir, Minister of Higher Education of Malaysia. For FEFU, this is the first meeting of an intergovernmental commission at this level to be held on its campus.

The center will be located on the UiTM campus in Shah Alam (Selangor state). The Malaysian side will provide the facilities and appoint the center’s director, while FEFU will appoint a co-director to coordinate the joint work on the Russian side. The Institute of Big Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence will serve as the lead scientific partner on the Malaysian side.

Essentially, this is a format that experts refer to as a “mirror lab”: physically, the center is located only at one of the partners’ sites, but it is managed and operates as a fully collaborative entity—with shared research topics, joint publications, and coordination at the level of co-directors from both sides.

Among the Center’s stated areas of focus are: large language models and generative artificial intelligence, natural language processing; machine learning and deep learning; autonomous and multi-agent systems; ethical and explainable artificial intelligence; as well as applied areas—the use of AI in education, healthcare, climate research, public administration, business, and smart cities; and cloud infrastructure for artificial intelligence tasks.

“The agreement provides for joint research projects, scientific publications, internships for research and teaching staff from both countries, and joint supervision of graduate students. Our next step in this direction will be to develop a joint educational program in the areas the center will focus on,” said Evgeny Vlasov.

MARA University of Technology

UiTM is Malaysia’s largest university in terms of student enrollment, number of campuses, and infrastructure: 34 campuses nationwide, 24 faculties, more than 180,000 students, and over 500 academic programs at all levels—from preparatory courses to doctoral programs. Founded in 1956 as a training center of the Malaysian Agricultural and Rural Development Corporation (MARA), it was granted university status in 1999. The university is ranked 116th in the QS Asia University Rankings 2026.

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