CAIDS is keen to establish long-run relationships with foreign and local partners, higher education institutions, and think tanks in Kazakhstan. The project team is carrying out necessary preparatory phase for the master program at ENU. CAIDS is also about to build its capacity for STC professional consulting and research in collaboration with ENU. We will maintain good relations with ISTC, ENU, IWEP, as well as European Studies Unit (ESU) at the University of Liege, Belgium.

CAIDS tends to become a hub for knowledge generating and training activities related to STC implementation. CAIDS is supposed to coordinate and oversee main activities across the region. We anticipate that, together with our partners, we will build sufficient capacity to establish STC sustainable program at graduate and postgraduate levels.

In 2021-2023 CAIDS maintain the research collaboration in STC between CAIDS, ENU, and ESU. Our main partner from ENU is the Department of Economics and Entrepreneurship of the Faculty of Economics. CAIDS will also accelerate collaboration research teams from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and other countries of Central Asia and other regions to build research network with specialization in STC by means of training researchers, experts, and practitioners to popularize the topic to involve wider audience. On-going project activities of CAIDS-ENU-ESU will be also focused on local research community through engaging ENU researchers and PhD candidates and dissemination of our studies in Kazakhstan.

CAIDS' activities will be structured around following research clusters:

· Cluster 1: Strategic Trade Control: theory and application, global development trends.

· Cluster 2: Impact Evaluation of STC implementation.

· Cluster 3: STC Internal Compliance Policy for enterprises.

CAIDS together with ENU and ESU can apply in consortium for different research competitions like Erasmus program, etc. We will collaborate with different universities in Kazakhstan, as well as Georgia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, and other counties, specializing in STC. In the long run, we expect to have a double degree international program at ENU together with the University of Liege, Belgium.

Training the trainers workshop on strategic trade control academic implementation in Kazakhstan

The International Science and Technology Center (ISTC) and the Central Asian Institute for Development Studies (CAIDS) in collaboration with the Department of Economics and Entrepreneurship of L. N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University (ENU) organized on 17-18 March 2021 the online Training the Trainers Workshop under the project of Strategic Trade Control (STC) Research and Education Implementation in Kazakhstan.

The workshop was designed to disseminate teaching and research skills related to Strategic Trade Control (STC) among the social scientists who hold teaching and research positions at the Eurasian National University (ENU), the Kyrgyz National University (KNU), and other organizations in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

At the beginning the welcoming speeches were delivered by Akbota Zholdasbekova, Vice-Rector for International Cooperation of ENU, Turatbek Suranaev, Vice Rector for Administrative and Economic affairs of KNU, Kamen Velichkov, Senior Project Manager and Diplomatic Advisor, ISTC, and Maria J. Espona, Targeted Initiative CBRN Export Control Dual-Use Materials and Technologies Project manager.

During the event professor Jean-Pascal Zanders (The TRENCH) and professor Quentin Michel from Liege University (Belgium) shared their knowledge and experience related to the research and education in STC. Professor Zanders made an introduction to the 'dual-use' concept, outlined the main aspects of the governance of dual-use technologies at the international and the national levels. Professor Michel introduced to the topic of essential responsibilities for different categories of actors. The lecturers also talked about the potential challenges in designing and teaching the courses on Strategic Trade Control, gave a review of existing university degree programs in this field around the world.

The workshop context encouraged more than 40 workshop attendees by new ideas in teaching and research. Young fellows discovered new opportunities in the forthcoming master program in STC at the Eurasian National University. More experienced faculty staff seized the opportunity to discover current research topics in this field. The participants also discussed the new horizons and perspectives for future collaboration and networking among the universities of the Central Asia through Strategic Trade Control academic proliferation.In 2020-2021 there should be online training for 5 new selected local instructors on STC, where Dr. Jean-Pascal Zanders and professor Quentin Michel will introduce to STC and present curriculum of the education program for the seminars and master courses on STC.

CAIDS organized an online roundtable on STC policy for local researchers, experts, and practitioners to cover wider audience and attract their attention for potential research collaboration. Our instructors will prepare an adaptive and sustainable online event together with IWEP to provide basic elements of STC policy toolset to address local and national policy issues.

There is a preparatory phase for the Master of Arts in Economics with major in STC Policy at ENU. It comprises the education program approval at ENU through necessary internal procedures, the master program official registration at MESK, recruitment of teaching staff and 10-15 students. MA in STC of 120 ECTS will consist of teaching courses (including courses required by the Ministry of Education and Science of Kazakhstan, MESK), internship, and Master thesis by graduate students supervised by our instructors. According to the new policy of academic freedom, the content of the master's degree program is supposed to be submitted for necessary internal approval procedures of ENU and then it is expected to be registered by MESK by June 2021. Hopefully, in September 2021 we will be launching the Master of Arts in Economics with major in STC Policy at ENU. We will provide communication and dissemination support of the process and necessary administration activity.

In summer 2021 we will start promotion for Summer School in STC, which should take place during one week in June 2021. This event we want to have then regularly at least once in 2 years. There will be teaser guest lectures from the instructors of our pool at ENU, Nur-Sultan. The idea is to attract potential master students for autumn 2021 classes.

In 2021-2023 the team will maintain at ENU the new 2 (two) year graduate multidisciplinary multilingual program in English, Russian, and possibly Kazakh. The master program makes possible for students to apply for further PhD program. Master students will be able to apply for the grants of Kazakhstan and other scholarship programs (like Erasmus, Shanghai Cooperation Organization, CIS, etc.) that will allow them to use academic mobility and visit the universities and research centers abroad.

We are planning to hold a milestone event at ENU. CAIDS will organize a one-week Certificate Seminar in STC for specialists engaged in the trade of dual-use goods. Some faculty staff and foreign students are expected to travel to Nur-Sultan accompanied with accommodation. The event should be covered by social networks and media, so its communication and dissemination support are needed.