Hundreds of Kazakh scientists will be repatriated to Kazakhstan from abroad, according to the Kazakh Minister of Science and Higher Education Sayasat Nurbek. He said that after the collapse of the USSR in the 1990’s, many promising scientists left the country. The ministry head said that now they are working to bring science specialists back to their homeland.
For example, Nurbek said that in the 1990s there were 52,000 scientific workers in Kazakhstan — and by 2000 that number had fallen to 12,000 people.
“Together with embassies we have created a database, we have 680 young or experienced scientists who work in leading scientific institutes or universities — we have identified them. Now we are working on their return,” Nurbek said.
The Minister of Science and Higher Education noted that they are working on three areas. The first is when Kazakhstani scientists don’t want to return to Kazakhstan. In that case, under the Bolashak mentoring program, young personnel are sent to them for training. “For example, Murat Saparbayev heads a large laboratory in Paris. Six of our scientists from Al-Farabi and Satpayev Universities work under his supervision. He trains them and [will help] create a similar laboratory in Kazakhstan,” said Nurbek.
There is also an option of “direct return” of Kazakh scientists. This is how Dos Sarbasov returned to Kazakhstan. According to Nurbek, he was given status as a member of the National Council on Science & Technology under the President of Kazakhstan — and a laboratory at Nazarbayev University. The third way to bring scientists back is for scientists who have left the country to give lectures to their colleagues in Kazakhstan. The project is called the Digital Nomads Lectures series. Alternatively, emigre scientists can also be invited to become independent directors on scientific councils.
