Saturday, November 2, 2013

Completing 'gSmart' Erasmus Mundus kickoff @KazNU

An intensive 2-day working meeting brought together representatives from 13 Central Asian and 6 European Universities cooperating in the implementation of this scholarship program for students and faculty from the geospatial disciplines. Led by Dr Aizhan Assylbekova as the joint coordinator in this Erasmus Mundus project, participants were developing initiatives and activities directed towards selecting the best and brightest of students for an opportunity to study at European partner universities.

Ms Giordana Bruno joined from Brussels representing the Erasmus Mundus Executive Agency, and Mr René Mally participated on behalf of the European Union Delegation to Kazakhstan. After the Dean of the Faculty of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Prof Vitali Salnikov had welcomed all delegates, they dedicated themselves to planning and taking all steps towards successful implementation of the programme with sustained outcomes and measurable impacts across Central Asia.

Over the coming years more than 100 top students from Central Asia will complement or conduct their studies in Geoinformatics and related disciplines at EU universities, making an important contribution to the development of this core discipline as well as numerous application domains throughout their home countries.