This year, one thousand students will be able to receive state support in the amount of 1 million rubles for the implementation of a startup, according to the official website of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation:

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Within the framework of the new federal project "Platform of University Technological Entrepreneurship", the acceptance of applications from students for a grant of 1 million rubles for the implementation of start-ups will start. The organizers of the competition are the Ministry of Education and Science together with the Innovation Promotion Foundation, the VEB.RF group.

“According to world statistics, every fourth startup, that is, a quarter of all launched ones, is born at universities. In Russia, this figure is only three percent. The main goal of state support for student startups within the framework of the new federal project “University Technological Entrepreneurship Platform” is to stimulate the development of youth entrepreneurship, make universities a place to launch and further promote business ideas. This year, 1,000 students will be able to receive grants. The amount of each will be 1 million rubles. In the future, we will expand the number of grant recipients. In 2023, we plan to support 1500 thousand students, and in 2024 - about two thousand university students. The government of the country will allocate 4.5 billion rubles for these purposes until 2024,” said Dmitry Chernyshenko, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation.

The Deputy Prime Minister recalled that within the framework of the federal project "University Technological Entrepreneurship Platform" in 2022, 15 main university start-up studios and 20 entrepreneurial "boiling points" would be created. In total, 5.2 billion rubles will be allocated from the federal budget for the implementation of the federal project this year, more than 2 billion are planned to be attracted from extrabudgetary sources.

“Today, more than half of the students have a desire to realize themselves in their own business. Our task is to enable ambitious students to reveal their entrepreneurial potential, create conditions for working on the first start-ups and attracting investments. In addition to grants, start-up entrepreneurs will also be able to receive support in the form of an annual academic leave, which they can spend on developing a business idea. At the same time, the project can be implemented both alone and in a team. Therefore, within the framework of the project "University Technological Entrepreneurship Platform" in 2022, it is planned to allocate 1.1 billion rubles from the budget and 375 million rubles of extra-budgetary funds for acceleration programs to support student entrepreneurial teams, 50 million from the budget will be spent on entrepreneurial "boiling points" in universities rubles and the same amount of extra-budgetary funds,” said the Minister of Science and Higher Education of Russia Valery Falkov.

The head of the department also added that an important tool for the development of youth entrepreneurship is the Startup as a Diploma program, within which students can defend their own real business project or idea as a final qualifying work.

“The formation and stimulation of student activity in the creation of technology teams and start-ups should become one of the drivers for the development of an innovative economy - a generator of ideas that can potentially be supported by technology partners and investors. I am sure that such student teams and start-ups can grow into companies capable of solving serious technological problems, including within the framework of strategic initiatives for the country's socio-economic development, including such projects as Unmanned Logistics Corridors, Air Cargo Delivery, Personal medical assistants” and others,” said Leonid Osipov, VEB.RF Chief Executive Officer for Technological Development and Innovation.

The first wave of applications for the Student Startup competition will last until April 11, 2022. The selection of projects will be held in seven thematic areas. These are digital technologies, medicine and health-saving technologies, chemical technologies and new materials, new devices and intelligent production technologies, biotechnologies, resource-saving energy and creative industries.

The competition is open to students enrolled in Bachelor's, specialist's, master's and postgraduate programs and who are ready to develop a new product, product, technology or service based on their own scientific and technical and scientific and technological research and have the potential for commercialization.

“This competition is great for students who have leadership qualities and have long wanted to start their own business, as they will be able to become leaders of their own companies and get a practical understanding of what a real technology enterprise is, and the grant will cover the costs necessary to create and launch,” — Sergey Polyakov, said General Director of the Innovation Promotion Fund.

According to Sergey Polyakov, during the examination of applications, the main criteria will be the qualifications of the applicant, his competencies and achievements, as well as the manufacturability of the startup project idea.

A university student who receives a grant will have to register a legal entity, develop a business plan and a startup website.

Detailed information can be found on the competition website: https://fasie.ru/studstartup/

Yuri Saprykin, Vice President for Regional and International Development of the Skolkovo Foundation, gave an expert assessment of the project.

“Today, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation is consistently working to launch the “University Technological Entrepreneurship Platform”, because, obviously, a certain potential has been accumulated in the student environment, in universities. Who better than students, researchers, teachers to create startups. This strategic initiative was launched today; the Skolkovo Foundation took part in its development and supports it in every possible way. Therefore, we certainly evaluate this practice positively, any startup that appears today in Russia - we are always waiting for it at home, “said Yuri Saprykin.

Sergey Salkutsan, Deputy Head of the Directorate of the NTI Center "New Production Technologies" of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, agrees with him.

“Modern universities have several opportunities for the commercialization of knowledge. Academic entrepreneurship is one such opportunity. The activities envisaged by the University Technological Entrepreneurship Platform initiative, including grant support for student entrepreneurial projects, will allow active young people to try themselves as entrepreneurs,” he said.

General Director of the Fund for Infrastructure and Educational Programs (part of the RUSNANO Group) Ruslan Titov added to his colleagues:

“Today, about a quarter of startups in the world are born at the stage of study, and it is gratifying that Russian students have accessible and safe tools to “try themselves in business”, not to be afraid to make a mistake. Today's launch of the grant program is the first important step in a great undertaking. A thousand of the most courageous students who received grants will be able to further develop their projects within the framework of other activities of the "University Technological Entrepreneurship Platform". We are confident that such a combination of forces of a large number of participants at the highest level will solve the problem of the shortage of new technology start-ups in the economy and will help raise the prestige of the technology entrepreneur profession in our country.”

Recall that in October 2021, the Government of the Russian Federation completed work on 42 strategic initiatives - projects designed to improve the quality of life of people and make the Russian economy more modern and flexible. One of them was the "Platform of University Technological Entrepreneurship", during the implementation of which by 2030 it is planned to create at least 30 thousand university start-ups and 150 thousand high-tech jobs. In addition, within the framework of this federal project, 1350 acceleration programs will be carried out, 150 entrepreneurial “boiling points” will be created, and the network of university start-up studios will be expanded to 50. In total, more than a million students will be able to complete entrepreneurial competency training during this time.

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