OREANDA-NEWS. Applications continue to be accepted for TEСHNOSTART 2015 Contest which is traditionally held in two main categories - "New production technologies for engineering" and "New products in engineering". This year TECHOSTART 2015's new partners - Energy Without Borders, Foundation for Support of Scientific, Research Technical and Innovative Activities, and Lider Management Company - established their own nominations for industry innovative projects search. Applications for strategic partners' additional sections are accepted from January 23.

Energy Without Borders Foundation (founder - Inter RAO Group) section accepts power plant engineering and production projects, energy efficiency and highly integrated smart grid projects. Lider Management Company section is open for hydrocarbon production projects - exploration, drilling and maintenance of wells, extraction of hard-to-reach oil and gas, clean production technologies, etc. Applications continue to be accepted for participation in ALROSA, JSC contest strategic partner's section of innovative solutions for diamond mining and cutting. The best projects in each section, apart from winning money prizes, will also be communicated directly to the management of major market players.

TEСHNOSTART 2015 contest has been organized by OMZ Group and Skolkovo Foundation, together with the Urals Federal University and Uralmashzavod, OJSC. The strategic partners of the contest are ALROSA, JSC, Energy Without Borders Foundation and Lider Management Company. Among experts, mentors, and judges of the contest there are representatives of the contest strategic partners, the stated-owned corporation Rostech's managers, URSC, Gazprom neft OJSC, Uralmashzavod OJSC, Izhorskiye Zavody OJSC, IZ-KARTEX, Skoda JS a.s., Uralhimmash JSC, Cryogenmash JSC, representatives of leading investment funds, and experts of Urals Federal University, MSTU STANKIN and Tomsk State University.

You can submit your participation application until March 9, 2015 at the web-site www.tstart.ru, after that the projects can undergo education programs to improve quality of applications before judging, both in presence and online. On the first of April 20 finalists will be determined who will be invited to mentoring session to be held on April 8-9 with the support of Research and Innovation Directors Club (iR&D Club). The projects will further take part in the final event to be held in Yekaterinburg on April 10, 2015.

According to its results 6 winners who will receive prizes from OMZ Group and winners in the contest partners' special sections will be selected. In addition to this, four finalists will be approved for the Skolkovo Foundation's grant in the amount of up to 5 million rubles, without mandatory requirement of co-financing (at the end of the formal stage of obtaining the Skolkovo participant status).