Technological innovation to efficiently and responsibly harness primary resources in the Global South

A demonstrator project and knowledge exchange programme for Kazakhstan

This research continues to bring leading UK researchers from the University of St Andrews, Satbayev University and Nazarbayev Universities together to put innovation into practice in the Global South’s primary resource sector. Since February 2019, our team has successfully held three international meetings and is, at present, conducting additional fieldwork in east Kazakhstan in collaboration with our academic and industrial partners. We have engaged with policy makers from the Ministry for Industry and Infrastructural Development and have made forward progress in gaining a declaration of support from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

Whilst continuing to work with our industry partners, the funding awarded has been invaluable in enabling us to operate with autonomy and focus our efforts on research that directly benefits the people of Kazakhstan. Our rapid progress in the last three months has generated substantial interest among early career scientists in Kazakhstan and the demand for spaces on our workshops is twice which was originally planned. We have chosen to be inclusive and open to applicants from a range of institutional backgrounds, and we see this as a positive move. Our team looks forward to bringing new specialist skills to Kazakhstan in the coming year.