Winners of the SPbU Start-up — 2023 contest to have access to the facilities of the St Petersburg University Research Park on preferential terms
The winners in the SPbU Start-up — 2023 student contest — recipients of grants to establish small innovative enterprises (SIEs) with the participation of St Petersburg University — will have the opportunity to use the facilities of the St Petersburg University Research Park on preferential terms in the early years of the venture.
For the first time, the start-up contest held by St Petersburg University is open not only to students and young researchers from St Petersburg University, but also to students, doctoral students, clinical residency students and early career researchers from other universities and research institutes in Russia. 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. This is the largest one-time grant in similar competitions.
The winning teams that set up a University spin-off to develop their start-up project will be offered preferential terms to use the unique equipment of the resource centres at the St Petersburg University Research Park, where leading experts and early career researchers from St Petersburg University and other research organisations in Russia conduct research.
The St Petersburg University Research Park is a unique free access centre that provides a barrier-free environment for conducting research. The advanced research facilities and high-tech research equipment are accessible for all researchers. At present, the University Research Park is a complex of 23 resource centres, with multidisciplinary research being conducted in many of them.
Additionally, the members of the finalist teams will have the opportunity to study in a non-degree programme developed by the Graduate School of Management at St Petersburg University and will be able to present their start-up projects as term papers or graduation projects.
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.