More than 270 applications were submitted to the Republican competition of innovative projects this year

Innovation is the traditional engine of the Belarusian economy in various sectors. To identify promising developments and create conditions for their further development and practical application for the benefit of the country help contests, including the Republican competition of innovative projects. This year, and the event is held for the 17th time, 271 applications were submitted for participation. The organizer is the State Committee on Science and Technology with the participation of the Ministry of Education, the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, BRSM. Organizational and technical issues are managed by the Belarusian Innovation Fund. This was stated by the participants of the press conference “Integrated preparation of innovative projects for expert protection”. The main aspects of successful presentation, branding and legal protection of developments, held in the press center of the House of Press.

According to Ekaterina Lakisova, Head of the Department of Organizational Work and International Activities of the Belarusian Innovation Fund, the number of applications is growing every year:

- The competition considers innovative projects at different stages of commercialization, which already have their own strategy. Applications are accepted from both natural and legal persons. In 2026, 271 applications were filed. For comparison, last year there were 224 applications. Every year we see an increase in the activity of participants.

Two nominations – “Best Youth Innovation Project” and “Best Innovation Project” – were submitted 147 and 124 applications, respectively. Also, by the decision of the competition board, 30 additional nominations were established, for which 104 applications were submitted.

- The most popular areas, as in the last three years, are socio-economic, humanitarian, social sciences, informatics, informatization and space research, said the head of the department of organizational work and international activities of the Belarusian Innovation Fund. In addition, among the leaders are such topics as human security, society and the state, medical sciences and technologies.

Based on the results of the examination, a rating of projects will be compiled and the best 40 will be selected for participation in the final. Full-time protection of the submitted works, the results of which will determine the winners, will be held in December.

As the participants of the press conference noted, the preparation of the project for expert protection includes not only work on the development itself, but also issues of its legal protection. According to Diana Ivanova, head of the department of scientific, educational and publishing activities of the National Center for Intellectual Property, the results of intellectual activity on innovative projects can be protected in three ways: copyright, patent law or trade secret regime.

- If an official regime of trade secrets is not established for production secrets, when disclosing information, for example, at an exhibition, such an object loses legal protection as an object of intellectual property, the expert said.

The second stage of the Republican competition of innovative projects is completed. Applications were selected on a formal basis and distributed to 12 state expert councils in accordance with the directions defined by Decree No. 135 “On priority areas of scientific, scientific, technical and innovative activities”. A significant number of submitted projects were selected, shared Alexander Novikov, Head of the Innovation Infrastructure Development, Commercialization and Intellectual Property Department of the Innovation Policy Department of the State Committee for Science and Technology:

- About two-thirds of the projects submitted were selected. State expertise is an important stage, it involves high-level specialists. The duration is 20 days. All points of the business plan are subject to evaluation: the level of achievement of the stated goals, the degree of readiness for implementation, the problems of the project, the technological progressiveness of the idea, and so on.

The purpose of the competition is to create a comprehensive system of encouraging innovative activity in the country, increasing its attractiveness in the entrepreneurial environment, involving young people in innovative activity.

arteaga@sb.by

Photo on the announcement: archive "SB"