The Minister of Science and Higher Education, Sayasat Nurbek, spoke about the results of commercialising scientific projects and the launch of a business acceleration programme for start-ups in the field of artificial intelligence (AI).
According to the press service of the Government, the head of the ministry stated that since 2016, the Science Foundation has held six competitions aimed at the commercialisation of scientific developments.
"Importantly, over the last three years, no funding or co-funding has been allocated for commercialisation. We have resumed this work and increased grants for commercialisation. The total contribution of the projects to the economy amounted to 118.4 billion tenge. Several thousand jobs were created", Sayasat Nurbek declared.
At the same time, Sayasat Nurbek reported that Kazakhstan is developing a programme called 'AI-Sana', which will provide business acceleration for start-ups interested in applying AI.
It is noted that the programme will target various industries. According to the minister, the leading universities in the country's regions will serve as the primary source of intellectual capital.
"This year, 650,000 students will take special courses on artificial intelligence, and in the second phase, 100,000 students will take courses developed jointly with Paul Kim, the Chief Technology Officer of the Stanford Graduate School of Education. By the end of the year, we plan to form 1,000 to 1,500 start-up teams in the field of artificial intelligence", Sayasat Nurbek emphasised.