On June 29, 2017, the University of Manchester delegation visited the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University and as part of the visit, they had met with representatives of the Faculty of Geography and Environmental Sciences. Representatives, the business development manager of the Directorate of Research and Business at the University of Manchester, Dr. Shanta Afale, a researcher at the School of Computer Science Anne Gladson, Professor of Sustainable Energy Systems Patricia Thornley (Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research) and Dave Carter, Managing Director of Manchester Digital Lab attended the meeting. During the meeting, opportunities for further cooperation between our organizations, not only in the scientific but also in the educational sphere were discussed. Colleagues from the University of Manchester were interested in the project held by the faculty "Green Bridge through Generations", the development of the idea of a sustainable city and the project "Al-Farabi University smart city", urban development and planning by using modern GIS technologies and remote sensing.

On the basis of the results of the meeting following areas of cooperation were identified:

• Cooperation in the field of education - an organization of summer/winter schools, academic mobility in the direction of "geoinformatics", "cartography", "Meteorology" and "ecology".

• Preparation of scientific projects for the Newton-Al Farabi and Global Changing Fund (covering all global issues) programs.

• Smart City and sustainable urban development.

• Increasing resilience to climate change - low-carbon development - sustainable energy systems.

• Supervising scientific research works of doctoral students.

On June 30, 2017, representatives of the faculty visited the presentations Dave Carter and Ann Gledson, who made presentations for the VI Innovation Forum, which took place in Almaty at the pavilion of the Exhibition Center «Atakent».

In his speech, Dave Carter noted that this is his first visit and that he wants to further develop start-up business and cooperation in the Urban Planning with the scientists of Kazakhstan, and especially with the representatives of the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University who attended this forum.

Also on the prospects for cooperation between the University of Manchester and Al-Farabi Kazakh National University was mentioned in the report of Ann Gladson.

In general, following the results of the meeting, an agreement was reached on the development of cooperation and a working group was created.