#ENUscience: ENU and Ulba Metallurgical Plant signed a memorandum of cooperation

The L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University signed a memorandum of cooperation with the JSC “Ulba Metallurgical Plant”.

The parties intend to develop cooperation in the scientific and industrial sphere, promote the commercialization of the results of scientific and scientific-technical activities, as well as combine efforts in personnel training.

The JSC “Ulba Metallurgical Plant” is a unique enterprise engaged in the production of nuclear fuel for nuclear power, producing all types of beryllium-containing products and equipped with modern equipment capable of processing any tantalum-niobium-containing raw materials. UMP has a powerful research base, a large design institute, and a developed infrastructure of auxiliary industries. The enterprise is a part of the National Atomic Company “Kazatomprom”.

At the first meeting of the National Council for Science and Technology, Head of State Kassym-Jomart Tokayev noted that business should cooperate with the scientific community in order to increase the share of research in the production sectors of the economy.

Last year the L.N. Gumilyov ENU was awarded the status of a research university. Currently, the university is implementing a transformation program, within the framework of which relations with large enterprises are being established. University scientists are implementing more than 230 scientific projects in the field of nuclear physics, hydrogen energy, petrochemistry, “digital twins”, cryptology, biotechnology, engineering, new building materials and others. The JSC “Nuclear Technology Park” became a part of the university in 2022.

Also, since last year, ENU has established its own grants “JANA ASU” to support commercialization ideas.

Within the framework of the signed memorandum with hte JSC “Ulba Metallurgical Plant”, the efforts of the parties will be aimed at conducting joint scientific and scientific-technical research and introducing their results into production, attracting investment in R&D, creating start-up companies and mini-productions.

The parties will also cooperate in the issues of training and retraining of personnel, the development of education programs, scientific internships, improving scientific potential and a number of others, taking into account the specifics of the enterprise.

“Our goal is to conduct joint applied research to solve scientific and technical problems, improve and provide our production facilities and our technologies. We see that ENU has an impressive scientific and human potential, modern laboratory facilities and promising developments. We are also ready to enter into a consortium with the university and present our laboratories and specialists for conducting certain studies,” Vladimir Vakhnenko, First Deputy Chairman of the Management Board – Chief Engineer of the JSC “UMP” said.

At the meeting, university scientists and the UMP management discussed the possibilities of implementing a number of projects.