July 10, 2018

PhD Research and Training Grant Program is aimed at applying the potential of the world's leading educational, scientific and production organizations in the development of industrial and innovative potential of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the field of training, professional development and retraining, as well as joint scientific research, introduction of scientific developments to the industry.

Objectives of the Grant Program:

• assistance in the development of fundamental training in technical disciplines of higher education that promotes science, production (training research engineers, constructors and designers of industrial enterprises of the Republic of Kazakhstan);
• focus of the domestic research on the needs of the real economic sector;
• creating conditions to stimulate research and innovations by establishing research and development departments;
• development and further maintenance of the partnership between scientific and research institutes, academic institutes of Kazakhstan with leading international organizations and universities.

Grants will be awarded to projects addressing strategic issues related to the future of Kazakhstan in priority areas of scientific and technological development defined by Higher Scientific-Technical Commission under the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan and President of the Republic of Kazakhstan N.A. Nazarbayev dated January 31, 2017 (except for research that does not comply with administrative criteria):

• Rational use of natural resources, incl. water resources, geology, processing, new materials and technologies, safer products and structures;
• Information, telecommunication and space technologies, scientific research in the field of natural sciences;
• Energy and mechanical engineering;
• Sustainable development of agricultural complex and safety of agricultural products;
• Life Sciences and health;
• National security and defense;
• Digital services, 3D printing, automation, robotics, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology and big data.

Each application for PhD Grant Program must:

• be market-oriented and scientifically competitive internationally;
• be relevant for present or future scientific, economic and industrial development of Kazakhstan, including the possibility of establishing research partnerships with local or foreign commercial companies;
• have the potential and interest in conducting multidisciplinary research;
• include proposals for outreach work in universities, high schools and public relations;
• be selected, evaluated and implemented in accordance with the principles and procedures set forth in POM, Procurement Guidelines and EMF.

Target group for grant A includes research organization for researchers who are studying or have recently graduated from the doctoral program (PhD) in the country or abroad (only residents of the Republic of Kazakhstan).

Proposals are reviewed on the following established administrative criteria:

The candidate must meet one of the following criteria:

- doctoral student who has completed the first year in doctoral program (PhD) (at the time of application) on technical education;

- received PhD degree no later than 3 years majoring in engineering sciences and technology (at the time of application).

To participate in the grant program of type A, Applicant shall:

- have R&D, on which the Candidate will work during his/her stay in the host foreign organization (or local host organization if an applicant studies or works outside of Kazakhstan);

- submit a letter of support describing the potential of the proposed research and/or technology and its readiness, and the need for additional research in the host organization (in free form);

- submit a letter from a local industrial organization about the interest in research project and/or training of the Candidate (letter must contain the specific scope of the proposed research and/or technology, and the required amount in cash terms per year);

- theme of the subproject should correspond to priority areas in accordance with Section 2 of this Manual;

- have co-financing of at least 20% of the total amount of the subproject from the directing organization and/or local production organization and/or physical person (letter of guarantee);

- host organization must be a centre of excellence (centres of excellence are: universities for not below the 100th place inclusively in QS World University Rankings by Subject by branches in 2018 - https://www.topuniversities.com/subject-rankings/2018; for RSI not below the 500th place inclusively inmRanking WEB of research centers http://research.webometrics.info/en/world);

- submit reference from NCSTE about the absence of plagiarism in research work;-

- provide copies of documents confirming the unconditional invitation (except financial conditions) or a contract with a host organization abroad, including timelines, cost (with detailed calculations) of the planned research (if a candidate is studying or working at a local organization) or local host organization (if the applicant is trained or working in a foreign organization). Qualification of the host group and/or the head needs to match the area of sub-project of the Candidate;

- application in languages set forth in this Manual (State and/or Russian and English languages).

The following applications will be rejected:

• applications related to production and/or trade of tobacco, alcohol products, weapons and ammunition, gambling and dual-use goods;
• applications related to involuntary resettlement;
• applications which can be classified as "Category A" according to EMF. Preliminary environmental assessment form is part of the Application and is mandatory to fill in;
• applications whose activities are mentioned in the list of areas from EMF, for which the World Bank does not provide financing;

Grant type A is a scholarship program individual candidates provided by the Applicant that is selected by ISCB, that meet all selection criteria.

Grant funds cover:

• individual scholarship covers all expenses for accommodation in the country which the Applicant intends to visit for research.
• transport costs, including the costs of obtaining a visa and compulsory insurance;
• family allowance if the researcher is traveling with dependent family members (only for wife or husband and minor children);
• patent and publication costs (costs associated with obtaining a patent, while it is allowed to pay those patent applications that relate to subject matter of the subproject, and costs for publication of research results in peer-reviewed journals with impact factor of not lower than 0.2 in popular edition, which is included in the international Web of Science information resources and/or Scopus).

In case of lack of funds these categories can be funded from co-financing.

Co-financing funds cover:

• costs of remuneration of the host organization, supplies, equipment rental, all taxes and fees that arise during implementation of the subproject and other overhead costs associated with implementation of the subproject;

Based on the results of the sub-project implementation, the following mandatory key indicators shall be achieved:

• performed experiment or test (with submission of the test report);
• submitting an international patent application under PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) with assignment of registration number or a patent under PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty);
• academic publication published and/or submitted for consideration with impact factor not less than 0.2 in top-ranked edition that is part of the international information resources Web of Science and/or Scopus;
• developed software (if the sub-project is in information technologies);
• developed business plan and/orcommercialization strategy for the subproject;

Maximum duration of sub-project is not more than 12 (twelve) months.