On January 20-21, 2023, the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University hosted a scientific and practical conference “Development of University science as a necessary condition for innovative development of Kazakhstan” with the participation of the Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan Sayasat Nurbek. Also, an exhibition of scientific and innovative achievements of leading Kazakhstani universities was held within the framework of the conference. The head of the Postgraduate Education Department E. Kerimov took part in the conference from the Academy.
At the opening of the conference, Minister Sayasat Nurbek made a welcoming speech, emphasizing the importance of developing science and innovation, creating a diversified, technological economy, which the Head of State spoke about, told about how universities are developing today. To date, branches of five leading foreign research universities have been opened in the Republic of Kazakhstan. For sustainable financing of university science, the concept of a separate law on endowment funds and a roadmap for the opening of endowment funds in five pilot universities in 2023 have been developed.
“The priority for the development of university science in Kazakhstan has shown high efficiency and impact. Indicators of research activity in the country in recent years are higher than in most post-Soviet countries that have preserved the traditional model of science. The development of university science will be promoted by the program of internationalization of the higher education system,” the head of the department noted.
Before the plenary session, an exhibition was organized as a presentation platform for the main achievements of scientific and innovative activities of domestic universities. 11 universities of the country are involved in the exhibition. At the exhibition, organized for the first time in the country, along with successful scientific developments of university scientists, student startups were presented. Scientists of KazNU named after al-Farabi, KazNTU named after K. Satpayev, KazNMU named after S.Zh. Asfendiyarov, SKSU named after M. presented their achievements to the visitors. Auezov, the Science Foundation, the Institute of Information and Computing Technologies, the Institute of Gorenje Problems, the Institute of Zoology.
The conference participants noted the need to exchange best practices, expand cooperation between scientific organizations and universities. The issues of transformation of universities into research universities, improvement of legislation in the field of scientific and technological development were also widely discussed at the conference.
The work of the conference, scheduled for two days, continued within the framework of panel sections, where the following areas were discussed: “Organization of research work of students”, “Regulatory framework for ensuring scientific and technological development”, “Ecosystem of an innovative university: successful cases of the implementation of technoparks, research hubs, engineering centers and business incubators”.
The head of the department also reported that in order to introduce scientific discoveries into the economy, the law “On Science and Technology Policy” will be adopted
Speaking at the conference, Chairman of the Science Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Darkhan Ahmed-Zaki spoke about plans for 2023. “The primary task is to develop the Law “On Science and Technology Policy”. In order to improve the system of implementation of state policy in the field of science and scientific and technical activities, the “National Council for Science and Technology” will be created. The activity of the National Center for Scientific and Technical Information will be resumed with the assignment of its functions for the analysis of scientific and technical information. We will also continue to work on increasing R&D financing to 1% of GDP in the next 3-5 years,” said Darkhan Ahmed–Zaki.
