The solemn ceremony of awarding the winners of the republic's contest of innovative projects was held on December 27, 2018, at the "Polytechnic" TechnoPark of the Belarusian National Technical University (BNTU) in Minsk. Valentina Dynich, Vice-Chair and the Head of the Innovation Projects Department of the "BelBrand" Association, is a member of the expert council of the contest.
The winners were selected in two major nominations. The work by Andrei Dyusmikeev, an integrated buildings’ ecology control sensor designed for health risk identification and revealing productivity reserves, was declared to be the best innovative project.
Maria Styogantsova from the Belarusian Research Centre for Pediatric Oncology, Hematology and Immunology was awarded for best youth innovative project. She designed a DNA vaccine against neuroblastoma.
In 2017, Maria already participated in the “Best Innovative Project” contest. It was her project that the “BelBrand” Association supported in 2017. Maria was a hero of one of the video films of the TV rubric of the “BelBrand” Association entitled LIFT (an abbreviation of “Literature, Innovation, Finance and Technologies”).
Alexander Shumilin, Chairman of the Belarusian State Committee for Sciences and Technologies, noted, in his interview to the "BelBrand" TV, that “Every year the contest improves, its conditions get better. For the first time since the start of the contest, an additional award from a business entity, the ”Nativita” Company, was established in biotechnology. Among the participants there are winners of other national contests, they get an opportunity to receive funding for development of business plans for their projects. The “BelBrand” Association and the Minsk City Technopark are also sponsoring the contest. A whole ecosystem is being build – from idea to opportunity for establishing one’s own business. Most submitted applications relate to the IT sphere, while the biotechnology is the runner-up. It’s important that this year we see projects that unite the IT with the tool engineering.”
This time, the Association honoured Elizaveta Sergeeva-Nekrasova and Maksim Matsevilo, the authors of the ”Eco-Fertilizers for Sustainable Development of Agriculture and Green Economy” project. In 2019, they will be given a chance provided with study at the International School of Brand Management of the “BelBrand” Academy.