The "Innovation of the Year" competition in Tatarstan: who can receive up to 500,000 rubles for project development

      The application period for the competition of innovative projects will last until September 30.

      What the "Innovation of the Year" competition offers

      The President of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan, Rifkat Minnikhanov, stated today at a press conference at "Tatar-inform" that the successful development of innovative projects largely depends on support measures. "Today, no project that is not supported by a fund or program will ever 'take off' either in Tatarstan or in Russia," he said. The republican competition "Innovation of the Year" provides the opportunity for support. It has been held since 2005, but until 2024 it existed under a different name – "Fifty Best Innovative Ideas for the Republic of Tatarstan." As Rifkat Minnikhanov said, the competition follows trends, as the areas are synchronized with state programs that contribute to achieving technological sovereignty. Projects are evaluated in five areas: new chemistry, petrochemistry, and new materials; machine engineering, instrumentation, and energy; information and telecommunications technologies; biotechnology and the agro-industrial complex; medicine and human health. The goal of the competition is not only to support the winning projects but also to form new technological teams in Tatarstan, implement their solutions into the republic's infrastructure, and help solve issues related to intellectual property.

      How long will the application campaign for the "Innovation of the Year" competition last

      There are five winners in each nomination. The best contestants in the "Student Startup" nomination will receive prizes of up to 300,000 rubles; "Technological Company" – up to 500,000 rubles; "Prospect" and "Intellectual Property" – 100,000 rubles each. Participants in the "Corporate Innovation" nomination are usually large corporations that do not need financial support. They want to win for recognition and popularization of their solutions, so the winners in this nomination receive diplomas confirming the high level of the presented projects and the systematic work of the company in the field of innovative development. The application period for the "Corporate Innovation" nomination ends on July 30, and the expertise will take place within the framework of the international forum Kazan Digital Week. For the other nominations, applications can be submitted until September 30. The project expertise will take place in October and November, and the winners will be awarded at the meetings of the relevant ministries of the Republic of Tatarstan.

      The competition is popular among schoolchildren

      By the nominations of the competition, it is evident that it covers different stages of project development – from school ideas to implemented industrial solutions. For example, the "Prospect" nomination is aimed at students in grades 10-11 and students of secondary vocational educational institutions (SVEs). The director of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan, Rifkat Minnikhanov, smilingly stated that soon preschoolers might also be able to present their projects thanks to the rapid development of technologies, including neural networks. The First Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Tatarstan, Rami Muzipov, spoke about the high interest of schoolchildren in the competition, which is confirmed by the numbers. In 2025, 228 applications were submitted for the competition, of which 78 were in the "Prospect" direction. "In fact, all of them deserve victory and recognition within their projects, but five winners are selected. Last year, it was a device for vision correction, there was a project on artificial intelligence. This year, five winners will also be selected, each receiving 100,000 rubles," Muzipov said. Examples were given by the director of the Investment and Venture Fund of the Republic of Tatarstan, Damir Galiyev. Among the winners of the "Innovation of the Year" is Vladimir Bayron, a student of the boarding school for gifted children at KSTU KHTI. He developed an innovative composition of biodegradable plastic that does not pollute the environment during decomposition. The project is being prepared for patenting and is being considered for implementation in industrial enterprises. Another winner in the "Prospect" nomination is Gleb Smorodinov, a student of the IT lyceum of KFU. His project "Binofor" is a device for training binocular vision, which is used in the treatment of strabismus. The advantage is that people suffering from this ailment can train independently, without being tied to a clinic.

      Participants in the competition were given advice on how to fill out applications

      For the third consecutive year, the Science and Technology Fund of the Republic of Tatarstan acts as the expert organization that evaluates projects. The director of the fund, Timur Khalitov, gave advice to participants in various nominations on how to strengthen their applications. "If we are talking about schoolchildren, we first pay attention to the novelty of the project, its innovativeness, the realism of the plan that high school students present in the application package, and the maturity of the idea," he said. In the case of student startups, experts look at how strong the developers are in marketing and whether they can sell their idea. "The quality of applications from contestants, especially from schoolchildren, has significantly improved. This makes us very happy," Khalitov noted. If it concerns corporate innovations and large enterprises, experts will pay attention to the quality of cooperation between companies and the scientific and educational community of Tatarstan. In the "Intellectual Property" nomination, the contestant must show that the obtained patent is not gathering dust on the shelf but has transformed into a technology that has been implemented in real production. Khalitov recommended that future contestants thoughtfully fill out their applications: "It is very disappointing when talented schoolchildren, scientists, and engineers do not carefully study the competition documentation." "Practice shows that inattention when filling out an application often leads to the fact that good quality projects do not receive support and are filtered out at the initial stage," said the head of the Fund for Development and Technologies of the Republic of Tatarstan.

      Photo: © Salavat Kamaletdinov / "Tatar-inform"