NU RESEARCH NEWSLETTER (ISSUE 5, NOVEMBER 2015)

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RESEARCH

Nazarbayev University Office of the Provost Newsletter

Issue 5, November 30, 2015

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NEWSLETTER HIGHLIGHTS

Dear colleagues and students!

Welcome to the latest news from the Research Team!

There's a lot going on at NU’s research life every day, but we offer you a quick way to keep track of everything through our monthly newsletters. Our newsletters will keep you up to date with what's new, what's hot and what's coming up at NU.

In this issue, you will read the news about recent events like the National Final of the FameLab Science Communication Competition, the Horizon 2020 Information Day and presentations made by our Team.

Inspired by the Green Photonics Symposium in October 2015, we took a first-hand interview for you from the organizers of the event - Professors Vassilios Kovanis and Anton Desyatnikov. To have a look at the interview, please check the “Spotlight”

section.

Be sure to keep track of your colleagues’ publication success through our ‘New publications’ column. We also prepared much more new useful information – on funding opportunities and Horizon 2020 program for our faculty members.

We hope you enjoy reading this newsletter, and of course would be delighted to hear from you if you would like to know more.

For any further information please contact:

Assel Narymbetova ([email protected]) Aiman Temirova ([email protected])

Sincerely,

Research Team

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EVENTS

Horizon 2020 Information Day at Nazarbayev University……… 4

Presentation: SciVal opportunities for SST Master students………6

SPOTLIGHT

International symposium “Green Photonics” @ Nazarbayev University………7

USEFUL INFORMATION

Horizon 2020: Possible collaboration opportunities with UK Universities……… 12

Horizon 2020: Useful links……… 12

Funding opportunities awaiting you!………13

New publications at NU……… 13

Scholarly impact: A pluralist conceptualization……… 14

CONGRATULATIONS!

To the winners of the national final of the FameLab Kazakhstan science communication competition………15

UPCOMING EVENTS

Workshop with Springer in Almaty……… 17

Workshop: Water Management and Environmental Impact Assessment in the Oil and Gas Industry ……… 18

Workshop: Resilient Structure and Infrastructure………19

Newsletter’s previous issues……… 20 Contact us……… inside back cover

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HORIZON 2020 INFO DAY @ NU

SEMINAR

The event was organized by NU in collaboration with InExCB-KZ, national coordinator of the Horizon 2020 program in Kazakhstan, and the European Commis- sion. More than 100 participants from NU, National Medical Holding and the Eurasian National University participated in the seminar.

The Information Day started with inspiring opening speeches by Mrs. Kadisha Dairova, Vice-President for Student Af- fairs and International Cooperation, Naz- arbayev University, and Mr. Kamen Veli- chkov, Head of Political Press and Infor- mation Section, Delegation of the Euro- pean Union to Kazakhstan.

The first speaker of the event, Dr. Kamila Magzieva, Director of InExCB-KZ, delivered several extensive presentations on the general overview and specificities of Horizon 2020. A special attention was paid to Kazakhstan’s participation in the Program and international cooperation in Horizon 2020.

Dr. Bela Kardon, Chief Scientific Officer, Regional Center for Information and Sci- entific Development, Hungary, presented information on the new rules of participation and financial aspects of the Pro- gram, with a focus on the lessons learned and the experience of a Europe-

Nazarbayev University hosted an In- formation Day on Horizon 2020, the biggest European Union Research and Innovation program, on Novem- ber 26, 2015.

an cooperation from a practical point of view. Dr. Kardon also delivered a presentation on the Horizon 2020 Work Program 2015-2016 with a focus on the

“Societal Challenges 3” (SC3: Secure, clean and efficient energy) and the

“Societal Challenges 5” (SC5: Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials). In addition, he also presented information and shared tips for the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions grant scheme.

By the end of the InfoDay, the participants of the event had an opportunity to learn how to navigate in the Horizon 2020 Participant’s portal and find eligi- ble calls they might be interested in.

There are several points that should be considered by a Horizon 2020 applicant:

 As an applicant from an institution of a non-EU member state country, you can either be a partner or a con- sultant in the Horizon 2020 appli- cation. You cannot be a coordinator or a work package/task leader of the Project.

 One of the most important goals for

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an applicant, who is based in Kazakh- stan, is to find EU partners and build/join a consortium of institutions from at least 3 EU countries.

 Once the consortium is built, your task would be to write your part of a research proposal; the Project Coordi- nator from an EU member state will then put all parts together and will submit the application package on behalf of the Consortium.

 While applying, in the Participant’s portal it will be asked to provide your organization’s Personal Identifica- tion Code (PIC). For Nazarbayev University it is: 953676162.

 In October 2016, there will be a call for proposals “the European Union and Central Asia”. You may find the information on the call here.

 It is never late to register on the Hori- zon 2020 website and become an Expert. Being an expert has its own advantages. First, as an Expert, you will review many proposals in your research field. Second, you will be able to build a network of other Ex- perts, and might have an opportunity to collaboration with them in the future. Third, it is well paid. For more information, please click here.

If you have any questions on Horizon

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2020, please contact :

Dr. Kamila Magzieva, Director of In- ExCB-KZ, National Coordinator of Horizon 2 0 2 0 i n K a z a k h s t a n : k a m i - [email protected]

Dr. Bela Kardon, Chief Scientific Officer, Regional Center for Information and Sci- entific Development, Hungary: bkar- [email protected]

Aiman Temirova, Manager for Research Monitoring and Assessment, Office of the Provost, Nazarbayev University:

[email protected]

With the permission of the speakers of the Horizon 2020 Information Day, we would like to share the presentations shown during the InfoDay and the Horizon Work Program 2016-2017.

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SCIVAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE SCHOOL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Presentation

Aiman Temirova, Manager for Re- search Monitoring and Assessment, made a customized presentation on SciVal and SciVal Funding for Master students of the School of Science and Technology (November 19, 2015).

During the presentation, Aiman demon- strated the features of SciVal and SciVal Funding that might help the Master students in their research and PhD applications. Below are the highlights of the information shared during the event.

SciVal can be used by Master students to find information about research performance of researchers and universities worldwide. To do so, the “Benchmarking”

module is used to demonstrate how a SciVal user can benchmark the research

performance of the selected researchers and find who is active in a specific research field.

SciVal is also a useful tool for students to find more information on the selected institutions they might wish to apply to continue their studies. This can be done by using the “Overview” module, which gives the information on the proxies of the research performance, including the h-index, field-weighted citation impact and citations per publication metrics.

SciVal Funding can be of great help to find current and past funding opportunities. The latter can be used to see the contact details of a Personal Investigator who was awarded with a grant and of a person who has administered the grant.

The system also shares an abstract of the research project and the amount of the grant received.

Source: SciVal. Top 50 keyphrases by relevance, based on 63,169 publications released in the field of Physics and Astronomy from 2010 to 2015. The keyphrases colored in red are of an emerging trend in the field, whereas those colored in blue—are of a declining interest.

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INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM

“GREEN PHOTONICS” AT NAZARBAYEV UNIVERSITY

Spotlight

International Symposium “Green Photonics @ Nazarbayev University”

was held at Nazarbayev University on 29 and 30 of October, 2015. The event consisted of two days program of invited talks by leading interna- tional and local researchers on pho- tonics, who presented their work to the faculty, graduate and undergrad- uate students enrolled to Nazarbayev University, as well other Universities from Astana and Kazakhstan at large.

Research team has spotlight the

event from the first hands for our readers by interview with the organ- izers of Symposium – Assoc. Prof. An- ton Desyatnikov and Prof. Vasilios Kovanis.

Research Team: First of all, Congratula- tions! It’s a big event for Physics Depart- ment, School of Science and Technology and for Nazarbayev University. We are more than happy to share the pride for you with our readers.

Since not all of our readers are familiar

(Continued on page 8) Participants of the International Symposium “Green Photonics @ NU”

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with the concept of Green Photonics, can you please explain the notion to us?

Vasilios Kovanis: Photonics is the science of light, includes generation, ma- nipulation, detection, and its domestica- tion for an enormous variety of applications, as evidenced by its increasing per- vasiveness in our everyday lives. Not many people realize that, each time you play a DVD a little laser does the work;

that is a small but already well- developed part of modern photonic technology.

“Green Photonics” is novel area of pho-

tonics, encompassing several directions.

First is the study and development of ap- plied optical systems for generating clean, renewable energy. This includes solar cells and photovoltaic devices, cre- ating energy-efficient optical sources for lighting and display applications. Then there is a growing demand for novel en- vironmentally friendly photonic materials for optoelectronic devices and compo- nents. Examples include photonics crystals and metamaterials, the artificial man -made materials with designed and highly unusual optical properties not found in nature. This development may bring us to a point of replacing energy-hungry electronic circuits with much faster and energy efficient, or “green”, all-optical elements in future computers.

RT: Can you please briefly tell us about the main idea of this Symposium? Who and how come up with an idea to make it?

Anton Desyatnikov: I joined Nazarba- yev University in June 2015; it is a great experience to take part in a growing and developing international university.

Working my entire career abroad, I know that international exposure of the Uni- versity is one of the key factors to success on the world arena. The idea came naturally to bring my international colleagues, leading research on photonics, to NU on a Symposium. One of the main goals is to place Nazarbayev University on the map of cutting-edge photonics research in Kazakhstan and the world, promote NU Physics Department and School of Science and Technology among our networks of collaborators.

Moreover, by bringing together experts in modern photonics from Nazarbayev University, leading Universities in Ka- zakhstan, as well as internationally re- newed scientists we created an opportunity for our undergraduate and new

(Continued on page 9) Image: Andrey Miroshnichenko, the Australian National University

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graduate students to participate in a truly international scientific event, promoting not only the importance of Green Photon- ics, but science and technology in general.

RT: And why “Green Photonics”?

VK: One motivation is that on December 23, 2013, The United Nations General As- sembly proclaimed 2015 as the Interna- tional Year of Light and Light-based Technologies (IYL2015), thus recognizing the importance of raising global aware- ness about how light-based technologies promote sustainable development and provide solutions to global challenges in energy, education, agriculture and health.

Furthermore, according to President Naz- arbayev 2014 the State of the Nation Ad- dress ''Kazakhstan Way – 2050: One goal, One Interest and One Future'', the great vision includes the transition to the

“green economy” by 2030. Our Symposi- um was one of many steps that Nazarba- yev University will implement to help the

country to achieve this goal.

We believe that NU, which has the ambi- tion to be leading research University and Institute of high social and scientific responsibility, has to raise and support globally important issues like that.

AD: Indeed, one of the inspiring things here in Astana is preparation for EXPO- 17 with the core targets for future energy, energy efficiency, and new technologies. We believe that photonics offers an avenue for future breakthrough technologies. For example, our Symposium ad- dressed the most pressing issues like efficiency and longevity of solar cells, the underlying physical processes in novel materials, such as graphene, optical metamaterials, networks of linear and nonlinear optical waveguides, and other photonic systems highly promising to revolutionize in near future the ways in which we humans use the light.

Important part of our job at NU is to ed- ucate and grow a new generation of Ka- zakh physicists who will be able not only use but also develop and advance such technologies. Green Photonics is one of

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the directions we hope to actively in- volve students and develop a compre- hensive program, from undergraduate, to graduate, to PhD levels of study.

RT: How many participants did you have this year?

AD: We had total 23 presentations from the scientist and researchers from Germany, Belgium, Australia Greece, USA, Russia, from NU of course, including Physics Department and National Laboratory of Astana, and from other Kazakhstani Universities as well.

VK: We are also proud to say that Physics Department of Nazarbayev Uni- versity currently has a significant num- ber of faculty members that are in- volved in research areas relevant to Green Photonics. They are Professors.

Desyatnikov, Zondy, Tikhonov, Oikonomou, Utegulov, Valagiannopou- los, Mandilara, Tsironis and Kovanis.

We had 6 presentations from our De- partment on this Symposium.

RT: What was the impact it had on its

(Continued from page 9) participants and University as well?

VK: The major impact was the fact that many prominent scientist all over the world got to know NU “in person”. By the end of the Symposium we already had 2 applications from our colleagues, who were eager to work with us at NU, to develop science here. We also had a suggestion from Prof. Cornelia Denz, Vice -Rector for International Affairs and Young Researchers of University of Muenster, to create an exchange program for our students, to give them ac- cess to excellent world-class laboratories in Germany.

AD: We also believe that Symposium was an important contribution for trans- forming Nazarbayev University towards a

“research intensive University”. It lifted up the research profile and thus made our Department and NU better known in the world and more attractive for poten- tial collaborators, international partners, and even faculty candidates.

RT: Organization of so major international event is a very time-consuming task.

What was Physics Department and SST’s

Image: property of the Kazakh TV

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role in this event?

VK: Prof. Desyatnikov, Prof. Tsironis and I were the main scientific think- tank for the event, which planned, invited and created the program.

But we would like to express our grati- tude to School of Science and Technol- ogy, which sponsored the event, and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan, whose grants made such event possible.

Moreover, Symposium wouldn’t be so professionally organized without people working at the School of Science and Technology, starting with the support from the Dean Prof. Vassilios Tourassis, Executive Director Ainura Shakirova, Managers Olga Levkovich and Meruyert Kaliakparova, Consultants Inabat Abzal, Ayagoz Kussainova, Meruert Muka- metkaliyeva, and Saltanat Malgizhda- rova, as well as help from Alibek Abdul- layev, Senior Manager of the Interna- tional Scholars and Students Depart- ment.

I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to this people for their dedication to the work and high professional skills.

RT: What are your future plans for the Physics Department and for the SST?

AD: Our next major event will be the Symposium “Dynamics Days Central Asia” in September 2016.

Physics Department has deep experience in organizing international confer- ences (“Nonlinear Photonics” by Desyatnikov, “Dynamics Days Europe”

by Tsironis, etc.). We also have an extensive network of international collaborators engaged in photonics and relevant research areas of modern physics, from metamaterials and metasurfaces,

(Continued from page 10) to photonic crystals and lattices, to non-

linear dynamics of light and quantum technologies.

Therefore, we plan to make a bigger event next year – the area of discussion topics will be wider, the program will consist of 4 days and, of course, we are planning to widen our international collaboration network even more.

Another major goal for the next year is to establish PhD in Physics program at our School, which also will become a cat- alyst for scientific development of the faculty members.

RT: On behalf of the NU Community we would like to thank you for organizing such an important and meaningful even for the research life of University and we wish you success in all new beginning!

Looking forward to new news from Phys- ics Department and School of Science and Technology!

VK: Thank you, we will be happy to keep you updated on our achievements.

AD: Thank you, and if you want to keep track of our work and major event please follow us on our Facebook and Twitter pages - Physics Department, Nazarbayev University, https://twitter.com/

physicsNU

For more information on the Inter- national Symposium “Green Photon- ics” @ Nazarbayev University, please click on the links below:

Event overview

Participant list (research institutes) Green Photonics booklet

Kazakh TV video

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HORIZON 2020: COLLABORATION

OPPORTUNITIES WITH UK UNIVERSITIES

UKTI Education can help NU researchers find suitable UK University part- ners in order to bid in Horizon 2020 calls.

One of the possible partner institutions for NU is the Middlesex University. This UK university has a long successful history of collaboration with Kazakhstani institutions and is very much interested in collaborating with Nazarbayev University. One of the areas of strength of the Middlesex University is Public Health.

For more information, please send an e-mail to Aiman Temirova ([email protected]).

HORIZON 2020: USEFUL LINKS

The European Commission will invest almost €16 billion in research and innovation in the next two years under Horizon 2020, the EU's research and innovation funding scheme, following a new work programme for 2016-2017 adopted on 13 October 2015.

For more information, please see the doc- uments below:

News on Horizon-2020 work pro- gramme

Calls for proposals

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NEW PUBLICATIONS AT

NAZARBAYEV UNIVERSITY

Google Alerts

Google Alerts is one of Google's tools to keep track of trends, interesting topics, or anything really new that appears on the web. We would like to introduce to you the recent alerts (since November 4—November 28, 2015) on the published papers by our colleagues so you can keep track on the NU research success.

For more information, please click here.

FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES AWAITING YOU!

We have identified 150 funding oppor- tunities that you might find suitable for yourself. For your convenience, we have split them into Science, Technology, En- gineering, Medicine (STEM) and Humani- ties and Social Sciences (HSS) fields.

For more information, please click on the following links:

All selected funding opportunities STEM funding

HSS funding

SciVal Funding

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SCHOLARLY IMPACT: A PLURALIST CONCEPTUALIZATION

We would like to suggest you to r ead an int er est ing art icle

“Scholarly impact: A pluralist con- ceptualization”, which was pub- lished in the journal “Academy of Management Learning & Educa- tion” (2014, Vol. 13, No. 4) by Her- man Aguinis, Debra L, Shapiro, Elena P. Antonacopoulou Gnosis, Thomas G. Cummings.

The article critically assesses a common approach to scholarly impact that relies almost exclusively on a single stakehold- er (i.e., other academics). Authors argue that this approach is narrow and insuffi-

cient, and thereby threatens the credibil- ity and long-term sustainability of the management research community. More- over, they offer a solution in the form of a broader and novel conceptual and measurement framework of scholarly impact: a pluralist perspective. It proposes actions that depart from the current win- lose and zero-sum views that lead to false trade-offs such as research versus practice, rigor versus relevance, and research versus service. Authors also argue that the adoption of a pluralist conceptualization of scholarly impact can in- crease motivation for engaged scholarship and design-science research that is more conducive to actionable knowledge as opposed to exclusive career-focused advances, enhance the relevance and value of our scholarship, and thereby help to narrow the much-lamented chasm between research and practice.

We hope you enjoy reading!

Link to the article

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CONGRATULATIONS TO THE

WINNERS OF THE “BEST YOUNG SCIENTIST” AWARD!

FameLab National Final

In 2015, Kazakhstan hosted the first Na- tional final of the FameLab science communication competition. During this first year of the competition in Kazakhstan, the JSC National Agency for Technologi- cal Development and British Council Ka- zakhstan offered the following prizes:

winner and two runner-ups of the Na- tional Final win cash prizes in the amount of 7.5 million KZT, 2.5 million KZT, and 1 million KZT, respectively.

Dana Akilbekova, researcher at the In- terdisciplinary Instrumental Center of the National Laboratory Astana, won the 1st place and made it through to the 2016 grand final of the world’s biggest international science communication competition, FameLab.

Aidar Kemelbay, junior researcher at the NLA Center for Energy Research, won the 2nd and Damel Mektepbayeva, junior researcher at the NLA Interdisciplinary Instrumental Center, won the 3rd place Congratulations to Dana Akilbekova, Aidar Kemelbay and Damel Mektep- bayeva, NLA researchers, for win- ning the “Best Young Scientist”

award at the National Final of the FameLab Kazakhstan science com- munication competition, organized by the JSC NATD and British Council Kazakhstan.

at the National Final.

The competition was very tough, with outstanding performances from all 10 participants, of which 8 were students, researchers and staff of Nazarbayev Uni- versity.

Organized by the British Council, Fame- Lab aims to discover charismatic and am- bitious scientists who inspire people to see the world from a new perspective through 3-minute presentations on their research.

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Winners of the “Best Young Scientist” award at the National Final of the FameLab Kazakhstan.

Congratulations to all the FameLab Kazakhstan finalists.

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UPCOMING EVENT 1

WORKSHOP WITH SPRINGER IN ALMATY

3-4 December, 2015

Date: 3-4 December, 2015 Time: 10.00 - 13.00

Venue: National Center for Scientific and Technical Information 221 Bogenbay batyr St., Almaty

The first day of the workshop will be held for editors of Kazakhstani journals. The title of the event is the "Improvement of the quality of Kazakhstani journals to enter the international rankings."

The second day will be dedicated for Kazakhstani authors. The event's title is the

"Enhancement of the quality of Kazakhstani academic articles to be published in international high impact journals."

To apply, please fill out the Application Form and send it to the representative of the National Center for Scientific and Technical Information at [email protected]

The workshop will be held in English with a synchronized translation into Ka- zakh and Russian.

For more information, please contact Aiman Temirova at [email protected]

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UPCOMING EVENT 2

WORKSHOP ON WATER MANAGEMENT AND EN- VIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT IN THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY

14-17 MARCH, 2016

The School of Engineering is glad to invite you to participate in the ‘Workshop on Water Management and Environmental Impact Assessment in the Oil and Gas Industry’ that will be held from 14-17 March 2016 in Nazarbayev University. The Conference will focus on sustainable water resources management for application in the oil and gas industry.

The workshop will:

 promote the participation of Young Water Professional and senior-young interaction

 serve as platform for promoting the science-policy-practice interface, where water professionals will exchange ideas and best practices, present the state-of-the-art and debate on key scientific & practical issues.

The workshop will be organized in parallel with another Workshop on “Resilient Struc- tures and Infrastructure”.

The subsistence allowance (travel and accommodation) is covered for 18 Ka- zakhstani participants.

To apply, please fill out the Application Form and send it to Dr. Vassilis J. Inglezakis ([email protected]).

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UPCOMING EVENT 3

WORKSHOP ON RESILIENT STRUCTURE AND INFRASTRUCTURE

14-17 MARCH, 2016

The School of Engineering invites you to participate in a Workshop on “Resilient Struc- tures and Infrastructure” that will be held from 14-17 March 2016 in Nazarbayev Uni- versity. The workshop will focus on the state-of-the-art for the understanding, design and development of civil engineering structures to withstand extreme hazards.

The workshop will:

 promote research links between leading, established and early-stage researchers from the UK and Kazakhstan

 serve as platform for promoting the science-policy-practice interface, where professionals will exchange ideas and best practices, present the state-of-the-art and debate on key scientific & practical issues.

The workshop will be organized in parallel with another Workshop on “Water Manage- ment and Environmental Impact Assessment in the Oil and Gas Industry”.

The subsistence allowance (travel and accommodation) is covered for 18 Ka- zakhstani participants.

To apply, please fill out the Application Form and send it to Dr. Dichuan Zhang ([email protected]).

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NEWSLETTER’S PREVIOUS ISSUES

Issue #1 Issue #2 Issue #3

Take a look back through the previous issues of our Newsletter!

Issue #4

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