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4 March 2024 News

Winners of the SPbU Start-up — 2024 contest to receive 1,000,000 roubles to set up their business enterprises

St Petersburg University has begun accepting applications for the annual contest of student innovative projects "SPbU Start-up — 2024". The contest is open to students and early-career researchers from Russia, seeking to commercialise their scientific developments. Small innovative enterprises, established by the winning teams to implement their start-up projects with the participation of St Petersburg University, will receive special target grants of 1,000,000 roubles. Applications will be accepted from 1 March 2024.

To enter the contest, applicants should form a team comprising two to seven members, who are students, doctoral students, clinical residency students and early-career researchers at universities and research institutions in Russia. Winning teams will receive grants from the St Petersburg University Endowment Fund to establish small innovative enterprises (SIEs) with the participation of St Petersburg University to implement their start-up projects.

Applications are accepted from 1 March through 29 March 2024, 10am Moscow time.

To establish a SIE and receive a special target grant for commercialisation of their innovative project, the team will need to have a result of intellectual activity, and be willing to transfer the intellectual property rights to the University. The level of readiness of the technology should enable demonstration of its operability and performance reliability on a detailed mock-up or experimental prototype model under conditions close to the real-world settings. If the project requires to be improved in order to set up a SIE, the contestants will be able to do so in the St Petersburg University Accelerator programme. 

The key priority areas this year are: nanosystems; information and telecommunication systems; life sciences; environmental management; transport and space systems; energy efficiency; energy saving; and nuclear power. Indeed, this is an indicative list only. Participants can propose their own themes for the projects in other areas of science, technology and engineering development.

The organisers of the SPbU Start-up — 2024 contest are: the St Petersburg University Endowment Fund; the Main Department for Intellectual Property Use and Protection at St Petersburg University; and the University’s Business Incubator.

The projects submitted to the SPbU Start-up — 2024 student contest will be assessed by the experts remotely. The Expert Council comprises experts in intellectual property law, science, technology and innovation; representatives of the business community, financial structures, and government authorities. After the remote evaluation, the results of which will be known by 22 April 2024, the results of the final selection will be announced. Terms and conditions of the grant agreements will be established individually with each applicant. 

One example of successful commercialisation of students’ business ideas is Terroir Concept, a small innovative enterprise opened at St Petersburg University by students who won the SPbU Start-up — 2021 contest. The team developed a geo-information software system to facilitate the selection of the most suitable vineyard sites, taking into account the climate conditions and features of the grape varieties. In the conditions of import substitution, the development proved to be in demand. Since winning the contest, the Terroir Concept team has carried out agricultural consulting services for wineries in the Crimea and Krasnodar Krai. Also, they have presented their development at the 12th Annual Investment Meeting (AIM Global 2023) in Abu Dhabi (the United Arab Emirates); the 26th St Petersburg International Economic Forum; and the Russia-Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum 2023.

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