The issues of commercialization of the results of scientific and scientific-technical activity were considered at the Government session chaired by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov.

Minister of Science and Higher Education Sayasat Nurbek reported that, according to the pre-election program of the Head of State, domestic science will be focused on new production technologies that will allow the country to become more competitive. It implies application of Kazakhstan developments in the real sector of the economy and gradual transformation of the national scientific system.

According to him, with the adoption of the law on commercialisation, three grant competitions were held by the Science Foundation in 2016, 2017 and 2018, for which 1,270 applications were received. As a result of the selection and expertise, more than 150 projects received state support. Their implementation led to the creation of 140 knowledge-intensive production facilities, with 15 projects entering export markets and another five reaching sales of more than 1 billion tenge.

Last year, a new competition was held for which 152 applications were received. To date, 72 projects have been approved for funding and 68 grantee agreements have been signed. By sectors, the portfolio of projects mainly includes initiatives in the areas of agriculture, healthcare and chemical industry.

The Minister added that the amount of funding for commercialization of results of scientific and scientific-technical activity in 2023-2025 has doubled. In addition, it is planned to allocate funds on a competitive basis for the development of science and technology parks at universities.

Amankeldi Sadanov, Director General of the Scientific and Production Centre for Microbiology and Virology, also made a presentation on the topic.

Having heard the speakers, Prime Minister said that in order to increase the capacity and competitiveness of domestic science, its financing from the national budget has almost doubled in the last two years.

"Basic funding includes payment for leading scientists. Funds are allocated for basic research. The duration of funding for scientific projects and programmes under development has been increased to five years. Grants and scholarships are provided to support young scientists and their publication activity is increasing," Smailov said.

He added that in recent years significant changes have been made to the law on science, and a relevant development concept is being implemented in co-operation with the entire scientific community.

"Society is waiting for real transformation in the field of science and technology, transfer of scientific developments in the real economy. In this regard, we need a lot of work to improve the effectiveness of scientific research, to increase its contribution to the development of the economy of the country," Prime Minister said.

He added that to achieve these goals we need to organize a coordinated work of research organizations and enterprises, to create active platforms and mechanisms of interaction. In addition, it is necessary to increase the share of experimental work in promising research areas: nuclear and hydrogen energy, digital technologies, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, biobehavioral security, neuroscience.

"To improve the investment attractiveness of science, we should accelerate the work with the Parliament to introduce additional preferences for private investment. The legislative basis of this sphere requires further revision," Smailov said.

In conclusion, the head of the government noted the necessity of drafting and submitting to the Parliament in June a new bill "On science and technology policy", to update the current Concept of Science Development, taking into account new mechanisms of commercialisation of scientific research results, as well as to work with the Atameken Chamber to establish specialised engineering centres and technology parks at leading universities and large enterprises.

"It is the effective interaction of scientific institutions, universities and industry that will give a positive impetus to the development of science and implementation of new scientific developments," Alikhan Smailov emphasized.