20 start-ups will fight for one million roubles from Endowment Fund of St Petersburg University
The Board of Experts have completed the selection of participant projects during the correspondence stage of the competition ‘SPbU Start-Up – 2020’. 20 knowledge-intensive enterprises have passed to the next round. On 19 December, aspiring entrepreneurs will have to convince the members of the jury that their projects are commercially viable.
According to the organisers, this year 18 projects were devoted to medicine science and new energy, making them the most popular spheres. The majority of participants are students who study chemistry, physics and medicine science. Bachelor’s students are the most frequent participants, whereas postgraduate students are the least frequent (only three in the second round).
For further information on the competition ‘SPbU Start-Up - 2020’ please visit the website of the Endowment Fund.
‘A lot of good projects are eliminated during the correspondence stage of the competition because participants fail to meet one of the main requirements – to build an interdisciplinary team of experts,’ said the Executive Director of the Endowment Fund of the University Evgenii Pen. ‘They have every chance to win, but they have to assemble a team of several experts in various fields of study. In fact, all the teams do need a PR-manager, a sociologist and an economist. All they have to do is find them.’
Among the experts who selected the best applications were Executive Director of the SPbU Alumni Association Alexander Arkhipov, associate professor of the Department of Biochemistry and consultant of the company ‘Avanpost Data Pro’ Kirill Moshkov, and director of St Petersburg University Arctic Research Centre Sergey Aplonov.
The second stage of the competition will be held on 19 December.
Students will have only a few minutes to get their idea across to the members of the jury and to convince them that their projects should be taken to the finals. The finalists will be paid a special scholarship of 10,000 roubles each during four months (January to April) to help them pay more attention to the development of their projects.
The winners will be awarded with big money prices: 300,000 roubles for the first, 200,000 for the second, and 100,000 for the third place. Also, the academic advisors of the winning teams will be paid bonuses of 100,000 roubles. The two best teams will be given the opportunity to create small innovative enterprises together with the University. Development grants will be 1 million and 700,000 roubles, and they will be distributed between the teams depending on the number of points they collect.