About us

The Center for Smart Sustainable Cities and Regions (CSSRC) named after Nizami Ganjavi was established upon the decision of the scientific council of the Ganja State University (GSU) on 4 October 2021 in line with the “Azerbaijan 2030: National Priorities for Socio-Economic Development” approved by the order of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan on 2 February 2021. In 2021, Azerbaijan celebrated the 80th anniversary of the outstanding representative of world literature, the great Azerbaijani poet and thinker Nizami Ganjavi. In this line, 2021 was declared as “Year of Nizami Ganjavi” in Azerbaijan. Due to this, as well as the fact that Nizami Ganjavi promoted the importance of nature protection and key elements of today’s sustainable development goals to save our planet for humanity, the Center was named after Nizami Ganjavi and established within the “Year of Nizami Ganjavi”.

Our objectives

The CSSRC identified the following 5 main goals in the field of sustainable smart regions and cities:

Development of human capital;
Strengthening research capacity;
Contribution to inventions and innovations through developing cooperation between business and science;
Promotion of partnership between public-private-universities-academia-NGOs;
Contribution to the public awareness process.

Today, sustainable development, circular economy, green and digital transformation, and green energy are key elements of the global development agenda. All these initiatives are based on reasonable savings and environmental protection principles. In this line, the CSSRC, which proudly bears the name of great Nizami Ganjavi and is located in his hometown – Ganja, will have a mission to contribute to the process of finding and applying smart, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly solutions for cities and regions.

Our mission

Our Team

The team is composed of specialists who have deep expertise in their given function:

Parvin KARIMZADA

Chairman of the board, Ph.D. in History

Vasif HASANOV

Director, Ph.D. in Technical Sciences

Razim ALIYEV

Deputy Director, Ph.D. candidate

Mustafa HUSEYNOV

Specialist, Ph.D. candidate

Parvin KARIMZADA

Parvin Karimzada has graduated from the Faculty of History of Baku State University, holds a Ph.D. in History, and is also an associate professor. Since 2013, she has been working as the vice-rector for science and innovations at Ganja State University. Parvin Karimzada is also a deputy of the Fifth and Sixth convocations to the Parliament of Azerbaijan Republic (Milli Majlis) where she is a member of the “Family, Women, and Children Affairs” Committee. She is also a member of the Science and Education Committee of the Parliament of Azerbaijan Republic (Milli Majlis). She is in a working group on relations with the parliaments of the Federal Republic of Germany, Belarus, the Czech Republic, Georgia, India, Switzerland, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Pakistan, Russia, Serbia, and Turkey. At the same time, she is also a member of the Committee on “Social Affairs, Health, and Sustainable Development” in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe since 2020.

Vasif HASANOV

Vasif Hasanov has also been working as the director of the Department of Innovations at Ganja State University since 2017. He graduated from the Ph.D program of the Institute of Management Systems, majoring in “Systematic analysis, management and information processing”, and received a Ph.D. in Technical sciences. At the moment, he is continuing his studies at the Institute of Management Systems in the Doctor of Sciences program on the “Construction of intelligent integration systems that ensure information security in Sustainable Smart Cities”. Vasif Hasanov has been working as a teacher at the Department of Informatics at Ganja State University since 2007, and is currently an associate professor of that department. In 2018, by the Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, he was awarded the “Tereggi”(“Progress”) medal for his services to the development of Azerbaijani education.

Razim ALIYEV

Razim Aliyev also works as the Head of Innovation, Technology Transfer, and Marketing Office at Ganja State University. In 2012-2013, he studied Instructional Psychology and Technology at the University of Oklahoma, in the USA, in 2014-2015, he studied Computer Science and Multimedia at the University of Pavia, in Italy, and in 2013-2017, he studied Informatics at Ganja State University in a master’s degree level. Finally, in 2021-2022, Razim studied Innovation and Entrepreneurship Management at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden.

Mustafa HUSEYNOV

Mustafa Huseynov works as a senior specialist at the Department of Innovations of Ganja State University. Since 2021, he has been engaged in pedagogical activities as a teacher at the Department of Management of the Faculty of Economics and Management. He teaches “Introduction to business and basics of entrepreneurship”. Currently, he is studying at Ganja State University in the Ph.D. program, majoring in general economics on the topic of “Research of innovative business models for smart cities”.