10 innovation labs for the implementation of sustainable development goals opened at KazNU

On the occasion of the 90th anniversary of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, the Scientific Centre for Sustainable Development and Environmental Management (SCSDEM) was opened at the university. The new scientific centre comprises 10 laboratories.

The work of the Centre is aimed at the implementation of the UN SDGs. The project is implemented within the framework of the IEE RK Targeted Financing Programme (TFP) "Sustainable development of natural-economic and socio-economic systems of the West Kazakhstan region in the context of green growth: complex analysis, concept, forecast assessments and scenarios".

The research centre works in the fields of climate and modelling, digital cartography and applied geodesy, GlobalSky (an innovative atmospheric research laboratory), sustainable tourism, water quality analysis, geo-information analysis of landscape degradation, geodetic and socio-economic research, environmental security, soil ecology, environmental monitoring and sustainable development.

The main objective of the SD&RM Centre is to identify the regularities of interaction between nature and society in the context of global environmental change, including the development and implementation of green technologies for the rational use of natural resources for the sustainable development of the regions of Kazakhstan.

Among the priority studies: natural and anthropogenic dynamics of geosystems, soils, relief and landscapes, development of scientific bases of nature protection, regional features of sustainable development, geoinformation technologies and mapping.
The opening ceremony of the Centre was attended by: Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan Sayasat Nurbek, Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation Konstantin Mogilevsky, Chairman of the Board - Rector of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University Zhanseit Tuimebaev.

The guests were also: representative of the UN Department of Global Communications Vlastimil Samek, UNDP Resident Representative in Kazakhstan Yakup Berish, mega-grant consortium partners, doctors of sciences, professors and teachers, young scientists.

The new centre was presented by Aliya Aktymbaeva, Dean of the Faculty of Geography and Nature Management.
It should be noted that at the end of last year geographers won a megagrant of 3.8 billion tenge from the Committee of Science of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The joint programme is aimed at solving strategic problems in the field of ecology of the West Kazakhstan region. This project will be implemented over three years.

Press-service of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University