Scientific technologies in uzbekistan

Researchers

In 2014, Uzbekistan had a population of 29.3 million, compared to 16.6 million for Kazakhstan. The two most populous countries of Central Asia logically count the most researchers: just over 30 000 for Uzbekistan and 17 000 for Kazakhstan (in head counts), compared to a little over 2 000 for each of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. This corresponds to a researcher density of 1,097 (per million population in head counts) for Uzbekistan and 1,046 for Kazakhstan (in head counts), compared to a global average of 1,083 (in full-time equivalents).[1]
Women make up 41% of Uzbek researchers, one of the highest ratios in the world. This is a legacy of the former Soviet Union, which laid great store by education. Four in ten PhDs (42%) are held by women, a figure close to the global average (43%). Women are almost as present in engineering as in science, accounting for 30% of PhDs in scientific disciplines and 27% of those in engineering. In the business sector, four out of ten researchers are women.
Share of Uzbek women among researchers in the business enterprise sector, 2013 or closest year. Source: UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030, Figure 3.4
In 2011, three-quarters of Uzbek researchers were employed in higher education and just 6% in the business enterprise sector. With most university researchers nearing retirement, this imbalance imperils Uzbekistan’s research future. Almost all holders of a Candidate of Science, Doctor of Science or PhD are more than 40 years old and half are over the age of 60. Nearly one in four researchers (38.4%) holds a PhD, or its equivalent, and the remainder a bachelor’s or master’s degree.
Table: Central Asian researchers by field of science and gender, 2013 or closest year
Scientific publications from Central Asia catalogued by Thomson Reuters' Web of Science, Science Citation Index Expanded, 2005-2014, UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030 (2015), Figure 14.6

Research output

Since 2012, Uzbekistan has ceded its lead to Kazakhstan for the number of published scientific articles, according to Thomson Reuters’ Web of Science, Science Citation Index Expanded. Even taking population into account, Kazakhstan’s output is now much higher than that of its neighbour, with 36 articles per million inhabitants, compared to 11 for Uzbekistan. The majority of scientific papers focus on physics (35%) and chemistry (21%), a pattern also found in Kazakhstan.
Since 2006, the rate of international collaboration has remained steady, at 60–64% of articles. Uzbek scientists collaborate mostly with their Russian counterparts but they also count German, American, Italian and Spanish scientists among their closest partners.
In December 2013, Prof. Ibrokhim Abdurakhmonov from the Uzbek Centre of Genomics and Bioinformatics was named ‘researcher of the year’ by the International Cotton Advisory Committee for a ‘gene knockout technology’’ he had developed with biologists from the Texas A&M University (USA) and the US Department of Agriculture’s Office of International Research Programs who had also provided much of the funding. The research done by Prof. Abdurakhmonov and his American partners could potentially have a multibillion-dollar impact on the global cotton industry and help cotton farmers fend off growing competition from synthetic fibres.
Uzbekistan and the other four Central Asian republics belong to several international bodies, including the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Economic Cooperation Organization and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. They are also members of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Programme, which also includes Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, Mongolia and Pakistan. In November 2011, the 10 member countries adopted the CAREC 2020 Strategy, a blueprint for furthering regional co-operation. Over the decade to 2020, US$50 billion is being invested in priority projects in transport, trade and energy to improve members’ competitiveness. The landlocked Central Asian republics are conscious of the need to co-operate in order to maintain and develop their transport networks and energy, communication and irrigation systems. Only Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan border the Caspian Sea and none of the republics has direct access to an ocean, complicating the transportation of hydrocarbons, in particular, to world markets.
Uzbekistan is one of the four Central Asian republics that have been involved in a project launched by the European Union in September 2013, IncoNet CA. The aim of this project is to encourage Central Asian countries to participate in research projects within Horizon 2020, the European Union's eighth research and innovation funding programme. The focus of this research projects is on three societal challenges considered as being of mutual interest to both the European Union and Central Asia, namely: climate change, energy and health. IncoNet CA builds on the experience of earlier projects which involved other regions, such as Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus and the Western Balkans. IncoNet CA focuses on twinning research facilities in Central Asia and Europe. It involves a consortium of partner institutions from Austria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Poland, Portugal, Tajikistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan. In May 2014, the European Union launched a 24-month call for project applications from twinned institutions – universities, companies and research institutes – for funding of up to €10, 000 to enable them to visit one another’s facilities to discuss project ideas or prepare joint events like workshops.