The Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia has received 465 applications for participation in the eighth competition for mega-grants from 57 regions. 362 applications were submitted from universities and 163 came from scientific organisations.
Scientists from 50 countries participate in the eighth competition in collaboration with 222 organisations among which 138 were universities and 84 were scientific organisations.
292 applications were submitted by foreign researchers, 115 applications were submitted by scientists who are Russian nationals, 58 - from our compatriots living abroad
Mega-grants are allocated by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia for creation of laboratories that will conduct research under supervision of leading scientists in relevant and prospective academic fields in 2021 – 2023. The main objective of scientific research conducted under supervision of leading scientists in Russian universities and scientific organisations is achievement of breakthrough academic results and solution of concrete problems in the areas outlined by the Strategy for Scientific and Technological Development of the Russian Federation as well as training of highly qualified academic staff.
The mega-grant programme lead to creation of 270 new scientific laboratories over 10 years The laboratories conduct research various domains of science, over 60000 articles in academic journals indexed by the international database Web of Science, over 1500 patents for inventions and scientific discoveries have been registered. Over 2500 employees of the created laboratories have completed internships, additional training programmes at leading universities and leading scientific organisations of Russia and the world. From the achieved results over 129 monographs and books, over 1100 education courses have been created or significantly modernised.
The results of the eighth competition will be announced in the end of this year. In this competition, 7 percent more applications were submitted in comparison to the previous one that was held in 2019 while the increase relative to the sixth competition of 2018. According to Irina Korotkova, CEO of «Inconsult K», the operator of the competition, on average one out of ten applications is approved for creation of a laboratory. The project's geography features 35 countries.
