On June 26, 2019,  S. Seifullin Kazakh Agrotechnical University (KATU) hosted the mid-term meeting "Innovations for sustainable use of agricultural resources and climate-adaption in the arid steppes of southwestern Siberia and Kazakhstan (ReKKS) " aimed to discuss results obtained so far in the framework of international scientific cooperation between Germany, Kazakhstan and Russia.
Welcoming speeches to the participants were given by Akhylbek Kuryshbayev - Chairman of the Board of S.Seifullin KATU, Jonathan Weinberg - Permanent Deputy Ambassador of Germany to the Republic of Kazakhstan, Head of the Economics Department, and Roland Keil - Scientific Curator of “Environment and Climate Technologies” Department of the DLR, Bonn. The meeting was attended by ReKKS members, as well as colleagues from Kazakhstan and Russia. Chairman of the Board A. Kurishbayev thanked the German Ministry of Education and Science for initiated activities to establish in KATU a modern soil laboratory, and expressed confidence that this step is one of the first steps to strengthen cooperation between the participating scientists of Germany, Kazakhstan and Russia. Following the presentations and discussions, the participants visited the Soil Museum, GIS center and Agroecological Research Laboratory of KATU.

The mid-term meeting was continued by a field session in the Center of Cereal Research (A.I. Baraev Institute) in Shortandy – the leading agriculture and crop production institution of the Republic of Kazakhstan. There, the ReKKS team had not just an opportunity to have the fruitful conversations with  Kazakh and Russian scientist, but also to discuss practical problems of agriculture in dry areas with Russian and Kazakh farmers. Apart of that,  the participants visited test sites of the Research Centre and gained knowledge about experimental work conducted in the Centre.