ASTANA – Sixteen projects have been approved for funding through the Innovation Grant Programme run by Astana’s Technology Commercialisation Centre (TCC), the TCC announced on July 9. Grants will be given in two categories: proof of concept, a $120,000 grant for a six-month implementation period, and industrial prototype development, a $400,000 grant for an 18-month implementation period.
The Innovation Grant Programme, funded by the government of Kazakhstan and run by the TCC, seeks to identify commercially viable scientific and technological ideas in energy, raw materials and/or products processing, information and communication technologies and life sciences.
Seven proof of concept grants were awarded. Winners in the life sciences category were Kairtai Almagambetov for a project on a probiotic preparation for the prevention and treatment of bacterial infections; Sluken Rakhmadiyeva for a project to develop technical standards for a domestic drug preventing liver damage; Zinegul Sarmurzina for a project to develop biological wastewater treatments; Svetlana Vizer for a project to develop a domestic plant-growth stimulator, and Shokhan Alpeisov for a project to develop a module for the magnetic stimulation of grain. Nurzhan Sarsembayeva won for a project to research and produce additives to increase poultry fodder production in the raw materials and products processing category and Nurbol Bakhtybayev won in the information and communication technologies category for a project to develop geographic information systems to determine mining project parameters.
Industrial prototype development grants in the life sciences category went to Markhabat Batyrkhanov for a project to develop processing, production and sale procedures for a drug for cattle disease; Bayan Sagindykova for a project to organise the production and sale of anti-aging skin care products within the Customs Union and Vasiliy Lyapeikov for a project to justify new environmentally friendly ways of chemically treating crops for pest control purposes.
In the raw materials and products processing category, Uzak Zhapbasbayev won for a mobile oil tank cleaning device for the domestic market, Sarsenbek Montayev for the production of small-scale rubble producing and rock-crushing technologies, Vladimir Mironov for an iron-based powder filler and Talgat Yeshzhanov for a project to produce biomass to enhance oil recovery from reservoirs. In the information and communications technology category, Kamila Shukeeva won for a project to create a one-stop shop to detect counterfeit products and Adilbek Bissenbayev for a project to develop a cloud strategy computer game based on Kazakh and Turkic history.
The grant programme is a major part of a three-year programme at the TCC operated by CRDF Global, which intends to build connections between science and business, support science and technology entrepreneurs and develop the culture of innovation in Kazakhstan.
The programme received more than 500 applications, which Erik Azulay, lead expert at the TCC, called a “huge response … larger than many of the grant programmes we’ve seen before” in an Astana Times interview at TCC last month. The applications were reviewed for their scientific validity as well as their commercial value. Forty-three were chosen to give a final presentation; of those, the 16 listed above are to be funded.
