It is fashionable today to have a start-up. But a good idea is not enough for the viability of a start-up! Even the most well-thought-out innovative project needs consistent funding. The majority of young people who work on finding unique, innovative solutions don’t have time and energy to also search for investors. This is where the university helps. Within the 5-100 Project which has been in force at SUSU for a couple years now, young researchers, postgraduates, and students gain financing for realization of the most unexpected and ambitious ideas.
“The majority of federal grant programs are for existing researchers with a number of publications. But to participate in federal programs, you have to begin with something! You need an initial scientific contribution, your first publications…” explains the Vice Rector of strategic development, Andrey Keller, “Thanks to the 5-100 Project, SUSU has a chance to support young researchers and students financially. We have already held a number of contests at our university dedicated to the financial support of young researchers and postgraduates. And we already have our first real results. Thanks to winning contests such as Support for Young Science, Scientific Potential, Scientific Prospects, Your Start in Science, and others, about 80% of participants published the results of their research in journals listed in the Scopus Top 25. The contest Forward to Discoveries is for ambitious students. It is dedicated to helping talented, brave individuals make their first impression in science.”
The Forward to Discoveries contest is for bachelor’s and master’s students and specialists studying full time and was launched on September 4th of 2017 at SUSU. The expert commission looked at applications from October 9th through 20th. The names of the winners were announced on October 24th. 46 projects took part in this contest. Thanks to the expert commission, 20 winners were determined, who received financing for the realization of their scientific projects.
“The Forward to Discoveries contest was held in four key areas – engineering, human science and socio-humanitarian sciences, Big Data, data mining, and natural and hard sciences,” explains the Director of the 5-100 Program Project Office, Evgeniy Belousov, “In terms of number of applications, projects in the materials science and electrical energy fields are in the lead, but the number of applications from other scientific areas is also increasing, which shows the growing popularity of contests for young innovators at the university. This popularity of intellectual battles is not only important for the youngest innovators. Contests improve SUSU’s image in the international academic environment and bring the university’s innovations to the world trends.”
The winners include 20 project leaders in chemistry, materials science, power engineering, biotechnology, and engineering. As a reminder, the financial support for each project is 50,000 rubles!
But winning a competition is only the first step on the path to success in a young innovator’s chosen field. To confirm their scientific potential, all of the winners must present two scientific reports on their project, including a published article in a peer-reviewed scientific journal upon completion of their project and proof of registration of intellectual property. You can find out more about the project reports at the site for Support for Young Science.
We would like to congratulate the winners of this contest with their great victory!