"SPbU Start-up — 2023" contest is open to students and young researchers from all over the country
The annual contest of innovative projects "SPbU Start-up — 2023" begins on 18 October 2022 at St Petersburg University. Applications will be accepted from 24 October to 21 November 2022. This year, for the first time, the contest will be open not only to students and young researchers from St Petersburg University, but also to undergraduate and graduate students, clinical residency students and early career researchers from other universities and research institutes in Russia. The finalists will have the opportunity to enrol in a non-degree programme at the Graduate School of Management of St Petersburg University.
The winning teams will receive grants from the St Petersburg University Endowment Fund to establish small innovative enterprises with the participation of St Petersburg University to implement their innovative projects. Grants for their projects’ development and commercialisation will amount to 1,000,000 and 1,500,000 roubles. The finalists will have the opportunity to study in a non-degree programme developed by the Graduate School of Management at St Petersburg University for the participants in the SPbU Start-up — 2023 contest and financed by the grant fund. Additionally, the members of the finalist teams will be able to present their start-up projects as term papers or graduation projects as part of the project "Start-up in lieu of a graduation project".
The main areas selected for this year projects are: artificial intelligence; bioinformatics; robotic systems; agricultural technologies of the future; Smart Space technologies; high-tech healthcare and biomedical technologies; digital university; educational game design; business management software; new-generation power and propulsion systems; IT-technologies; and more. The organisers of the contest emphasise that this is an indicative list only, and students can propose their own themes for the projects.
Participation in such a prestigious contest is a unique chance for students to showcase and update their competencies and project management skills, as well as to find and develop their own innovative project, which in future may become a life’s work. For lecturers who have experience in entrepreneurship or project management, this is also an opportunity to act as the contest tutors.
Elena Mishutina, Executive Director at the St Petersburg University Endowment Fund
The eighth competition of innovative start-up projects will be held from 18 October 2022 to 25 May 2023. The deadline for submission of applications is 21 November 2022. The projects selected by the Expert Council will advance to the second — correspondence (qualifying) — round of the contest, which finishes on 7 December 2022. Teams that have passed to the next round — from 12 December 2022 to 13 January 2023 — will be provided with dedicated tutor support. The fourth round — from 23 January to 6 February — features pitching sessions for further selection of projects. The fifth round contains team training and consultation modules. It will take place from 14 February to 24 May 2023. The final round of the competition will be held on 25 May 2023.