Margaret Norington is a PhD scholar at the Australian National University, and a visiting scholar at CCASC, College of Social Sciences, KIMEP University.  Following retirement from executive positions in the Australian Department of Health, she lived in France and traveled widely for over a decade, including extensively in Iran. This eventually led to her pursuit of studies on the Middle East and Central Asia at the Centre for Arabic and Islamic Studies at the ANU.  Her PhD research is focused on the relationship between the European Union and Central Asia, as a region and the five individual states, with a specific focus on the EU's role in assisting in the transition away from fossil fuel dependency to increasing renewable energy sources into their energy mix. During her time at KIMEP, she conducted interviews in Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic on perceptions of climate change impact on Central Asia, and attitudes towards renewable energy and actions designed to increase its deployment use in the local energy mix.

Dr. Giulia Sciorati is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and a Teaching Fellow at the University of Trento (Italy). Her research mainly focuses on the instrumental use of memory and culture in diplomacy, particularly in China’s relations with Central Asian countries. She also teaches modules at the University of Pavia and the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan. In a different capacity, Giulia collaborates with the Asia Centre of the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI) for the China Programme. She earned a PhD in International Studies from the School of International Studies of the University of Trento in 2020. During her studies, she was a visiting researcher at KIMEP University, the University of Oxford, the University of Nottingham, and Beijing Language and Culture University.

Oyuna Baldakova is a research associate at the DIGISILK project at King's College London. She is also currently finishing her PhD degree at the Free University of Berlin, researching how China’s Belt and Road Initiative is being institutionalised in Beijing and implemented in light of the economic, political, and social realities of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Oyuna completed her Master’s degree in Modern East Asian Studies at Goethe University Frankfurt in Germany. She has extensive experience in the field of international development, having interned at UNESCO Bangkok, managed an EU-funded project for Central Asia, and run communications at the International Organization of Folk Art (IOV).

Dana Rice is a PhD candidate at the Australian National University and a visiting scholar at KIMEP. She completed her undergraduate and honours degrees at the University of Tasmania and studied in the Energy Politics of Eurasia (ENERPO) Master’s program at the European University at Saint Petersburg (EUSP). Dana remains involved with EUSP as the Editor-in-Chief of the ENERPO Journal: https://enerpojournal.com. During her time at CCASC, KIMEP University, Dana will be conducting in-depth interviews on perceptions of China in Kazakhstan as part of her PhD fieldwork.