Centre for Euro-Asian Studies Creative Spark Kazakhstan Project

The Centre for Euro-Asian Studies (CEAS) has worked alongside the Kazakh-British Technical University (KBTU) and the British Council to deliver the project, which covers seven countries in Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan), South Caucasus (Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia) and Ukraine.

In order to support higher education reform and respond to unemployment rates in these seven countries, partner countries use the UK's experience to help develop enterprise education and support young entrepreneurs. Over 10,000 students and young entrepreneurs were supported in total in all countries in the first year of the programme.

One of the biggest events of the programme is a Big Idea Challenge video pitch competition which encourages young people from programme countries to develop an innovative 'startup' and tell the world about it. The competition is organised by British Council and London Metropolitan University.

The three competition categories are digital technology, social impact and creativity. Between them they encourage all types of ideas, whether it's about a great business venture, an amazing creative project or simply trying to make the world a better place.

Faculty and PhD researchers from Henley Centre for Entrepreneurship (HCfE) and have also supported the Creative Spark Kazakhstan project. Most notably, they worked with the CEAS, the British Council and the KBTU to roll out their IDEAFEST Business Idea Competition. Further details on the inaugural Kazakhstan IDEAFEST can be found here.