University winds grant to host joint workshop with a university in Kazakhstan

The University of Northampton is one of the first groups of institutions to win a grant under the Newton-Al-Farabi Partnership programme and has held a joint workshop with the Kazakh-British Technical University (KBTU).

Taking place over three days at the end of February at the KBTU Business School in Almaty, Kazakhstan, the workshop focused on the impact of emerging economies and their multinational on the world. It was led by Dr Shaowei He of Northampton Business School and Dr Ken Charman of KBTU and the aim was to provide an opportunity for early career researchers from both countries to share their work with peers and with more established scholars.

A group of 12 early career researchers from a number of UK universities, including four from Northampton Business School attended the workshop, alongside a number of young Kazakh-based researchers who took part and presented their work. The best paper certificate from Emerald Publishing was awarded to Jelena Vuckivic who has recently completed her PhD at Northampton Business School.  She has been invited to submit to the International Journal for Emerging Markets as a result.

Mentors and guest speakers, including Professor Frank Macdonald, University of Liverpool, Professor Dana Minbaeva, Copenhagen Business School, Professor Yelena Kalyuzhnova, Henley Business School, Nikolay Shilov, Nazarbayev University and Dong Liu, Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, were on hand to help with advice on publication, to chair sessions and to give papers themselves.  There was a strong focus on   networking with a session run by Dr Sandy MacDonald from Northampton Business School and overall feedback demonstrated that this was a really positive experience with new collaborations and research contacts being made. All those who attended were invited to join the Centre for China, Transitional and Developing Economies at the University of Northampton.

The Newton-Al-Farabi Partnership Programme is financed jointly by the UK and Kazakhstan governments and aims to develop existing contacts and build strong, sustainable, systemic relationships in research and innovation. It works with government bodies, research organisations, universities and businesses to support Kazakhstan to achieve its development goals. The programme is coordinated by JSC Science Fund for Kazakhstan, and the British Council for the UK.​

Dr Ian Brooks, Executive Dean of Northampton Business School at the University of Northampton, said: “The University of Northampton is committed to developing international partnerships to offer our students and those in partner organisations a global student experience. This award, funded by the Newton- Al-Farabi Programme, will enable us to leverage our leading-edge research capability to develop junior researchers in this country and in Kazakhstan. We are confident that this will be the start of a long and fruitful relationship which will assist greatly in developing research capacity in the University of Northampton, in its partner KBTU and in other international universities.”