Nurlykhan Aljanova is a Research Fellow at NURCE. Her research bridges cultural entrepreneurship, identity transformation, and socio-economic development, with recent expansion into sustainable development, green hydrogen policy, and energy transition studies in Kazakhstan. She brings an interdisciplinary perspective that connects culture, policy, entrepreneurship, and sustainability. Her early work focused on decolonization processes, women’s entrepreneurship, organizational identity reconstruction, and cultural values preservation in post-Soviet contexts. She actively contributes to national discussions on Kazakhstan’s green transition strategy, including hydrogen export ambitions, workforce readiness, and social acceptance dynamics in regions such as Mangystau and Atyrau. Her research combines qualitative fieldwork, stakeholder mapping, policy analysis, and narrative inquiry to understand how large-scale technological transitions intersect with identity, culture, and local communities.