CASIB Engagement in High-Level Kazakhstan–Germany Science Cooperation Meeting in Brussels
CASIB took part in a high-level meeting in Brussels with Kazakhstan’s Minister of Science, Sayasat Nurbek, as part of a delegation visit led by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. The discussions focused on strengthening Kazakhstan–EU scientific cooperation and advancing Kazakhstan’s ambition to become an associated member of Horizon Europe.
On Wednesday, 25 June, CASIB participated in a high-level meeting with Kazakhstan’s Minister of Science, Sayasat Nurbek, as part of a delegation visit led by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. The visit took place in the context of Kazakhstan’s ambition to become an associated member of Horizon Europe. Kazakhstan is strongly committed to expanding its scientific cooperation with Europe, particularly with Germany. The MLU Representative Office in Kazakhstan, with its long-standing presence in the country since 2019 and its extensive network within the Kazakh research landscape, serves as an important partner in this process, including through CASIB activities.
To further strengthen this partnership, a Letter of Intent was signed during the meeting between the MLU Representative Office and Astana Hub, one of Central Asia’s leading institutions in research, innovation, and technology. The agreement aims to leverage Kazakhstan’s rapidly developing science and innovation ecosystem and its strong interest in international cooperation to build new partnerships in forward-looking fields such as artificial intelligence, digitalization, climate research, and green transformation.
Through CASIB, the MLU Representative Office currently supports the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) in developing and implementing applied research collaborations between Germany and Central Asia. It also maintains close cooperation with the German Research Foundation (DFG) as a DFG Trust Scientist since December 2025, contributing to the promotion of joint fundamental research. In addition to BMFTR-funded projects on sustainable land use management, the MLU Representative Office is a key partner of the Center for German Law at Maqsut Narikbayev University in Astana. It coordinates joint study programmes, facilitates academic exchange, and supports the modernization of legal education in Kazakhstan.
To further expand scientific cooperation between MLU and Kazakh research institutions and to inform MLU researchers about collaboration opportunities in Kazakhstan and the wider Central Asian region—a region that is increasingly gaining strategic importance for the German Federal Government and attracting growing interest from the German research community due to improving research conditions—the MLU Representative Office, together with Kazakh partners and the Federal Ministry of Research, is organizing a regional conference in Astana on 17–18 November.
During the visit, alongside meetings with the Kazakh delegation, the head of the MLU Representative Office also visited the Permanent Representation of the Federal Republic of Germany to the European Union to discuss current developments in European research funding.