The Vyzov Award: The Start of a New Season and Support for Science

At the World Youth Festival on Sunday, March 3, a press conference dedicated to the start of the new season of the Vyzov National Award in the field of future technologies was held.

The participants of the event were: Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the Vyzov National Award in the field of future technologies, Skoltech professor Artyom Oganov, Deputy Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the Vyzov Award, head of the scientific group "Quantum Information Technologies" of the Russian Quantum Center Alexei Fedorov, head of the Laboratory of Hybrid Photonics Skoltech Pavlos Lagoudakis, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of JSC "Gazprombank" Dmitry Zauers, President of the Vyzov Foundation for the Development of Scientific and Cultural Relations Leonid Shlyakhover.

The co-founders of the award are the Vyzov Foundation, Gazprombank, the general partner is the Rosatom State Corporation with the support of the Moscow Government and the Roscongress Foundation.

The participants discussed what innovations and changes they plan to introduce to the Award this year, as well as the application process and criteria for selecting participants. The event was held as part of the Multinational Unity day at the WYF.

"Today the second season of the Vyzov Award started, you can apply on the Award's website. The award fund has changed - this year it will be 50 million rubles. And one of the important decisions we made was the international nomination "Discovery". This was one of the key decisions for us and the appearance of the international nomination demonstrates Russia's openness to dialog in the sphere of scientific and technological cooperation. This nomination should become an important milestone in the continuation of scientific dialog," said Leonid Shlyakhover.

Scientists from different parts of the country and around the world can apply for the award.

Artem Oganov emphasized that the award is national and its main mission is to support Russian science, technology, and economy. And also to give an incentive to Russian children to engage in science and ingenuity, to choose such a profession.

"At the same time, we see our mission somewhat broader, and we have created a new international nomination. Four nominations were and still are intra-Russian and are intended only for scientists who work in Russia, regardless of their citizenship. The fifth nomination is for people working outside Russia, and again they can have any citizenship. Our task now is to spread the word about our award outside Russia. We would like our award to be known very widely. We are looking at the entire globe without exception. And we, as a scientific committee, guarantee absolute objectivity. We look only at scientific achievements," noted Artem Oganov.

Alexei Fedorov explained that among the nominations of the award is "Perspective", which is aimed at researchers under 35 years of age, in the framework of which young scientists compete. The award  is designed to support them at a fairly early stage in the development of their scientific careers.

"I think the award is a very important tool for attracting the attention, on the one hand, of the general public to scientific achievements and, on the other hand, of high-tech businesses. The award is an important tool to support the development and building a dialog between science and business", - emphasized Alexei Fedorov.

In turn, Pavlos Lagoudakis spoke about how the award has influenced his professional development and how his career is developing now. He was one of the award winners last year and emphasized that it motivates young scientists.

According to Alexei Fedorov, last year the award received more than 200 applications, and this year it is expected to be much larger.

The World Youth Festival is taking place at the Sirius Federal Territory from March 1 to 7, 2024, as per the decree issued by Russian President Vladimir Putin aimed at fostering international youth cooperation.

The Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh) is the organizer of the World Youth Festival, with the Directorate of the World Youth Festival serving as the operator for WYF-2024.