Applications for Competition of Innovations in Education Are Open
The HSE Institute of Education is the main organizer of the international Competition of Innovations in Education. In addition to the Russian track, the competition is also being held in Kazakhstan, as well as in Armenia and Georgia. Applications are open online until October 21st, 2022. The overall winner will receive an educational grant, while the category winners will receive prizes from our partner organisations.
The competition was launched at HSE University in 2014. The main task of the contest is to find promising projects created by individual developers or teams of up to 6 people, identify the best ones and give them a start in life. Projects can be dedicated to different levels of education and be at different stages — anything from an initial idea to a working business. Participants of the competition include teachers and university professors, educational administrators, students and school students, their parents, and businesspeople including entrepreneurs.
Between 2014 and 2021, there were 4682 entrants from 21 countries and 157 cities.
This year the competition features 11 categories covering global trends and in response to feedback from the competition participants of the previous years. When submitting an application, the project authors can choose one or two of them.
Categories of the Competition of Innovations in Education 2022
1. ‘New methods’ — projects that offer new methods, educational approaches and formats.
2. ‘New skills, competencies and literacy’ — projects aimed at developing new competencies (soft skills, financial, digital literacy, etc.).
3. ‘Teaching category’ — projects aimed at supporting and developing teachers, mentors, creating ecosystems around and for a teacher, etc.
4. ‘Digital transformation’ — projects aimed at creating new digital solutions (tools, aggregator platforms, etc.).
5. ‘Lessons of the pandemic’ — projects to strengthen and convert the positive effects of school development, as well as to neutralise any negative consequences.
6. ‘Well-being’ — projects aimed at supporting the health and psychological well-being of all participants of the educational process.
7. ‘Family Laboratory of Education’ — projects focused on supporting and developing the new role of the family in education, as well as interaction between different generations.
8. ‘Education for Everyone’ — projects aimed at improving the accessibility and quality of education for groups with special needs (including representatives of the silver age), personalizing the learning process.
9. ‘Power of Community’ — projects aimed at developing educational initiatives for local communities and building communities for the development of education, P2P and mentoring.
10. ‘Popularization in education’ — educational and cultural initiatives, promotion and positioning of projects and ideas in the educational environment, media in education.
11. ‘Environment for innovation’ — initiatives aimed at stimulating and managing innovations, new research in education, and new approaches to innovation scaling.
All applications submitted for the competition in 2022 will undergo an independent double examination: they will be reviewed by more than 100 experts from education and business, providing feedback to the teams. Following the results of this round, the semi-finalists will be invited to HSE University for the autumn school - an educational intensive course and accelerator, where they will present their projects to the competition partners, and other experts in education and business. The overall winner will be chosen from the remaining teams based on the results of the final round, which will be held in November.
The competition partners traditionally include the publishing house ‘Prosveshcheniye’ SOL Center, Sberbank Charitable Foundation ‘Investment to the Future’, the Rybakov Foundation, etc. The partner in Kazakhstan is Abai Kazakh National Pedagogical University, and in Armenia, the International Scientific-Educational Center of RA NAS.
Assel Akpayeva, Associate Professor of the Abai Kazakh National Pedagogical University
‘Last year our university became a partner of the Competition of Innovations in Education. Not only Kazakh teachers, but also parents, students, entrepreneurs in education, and IT specialists all submitted applications for the competition. The grassroots innovations they offered focussed on various issues, including digitalization, didactics of education, inclusive education, and spiritual and moral education.’
Armen Sargsyan, Director of International Scientific-Educational Center of RA NAS
‘Holding the Competition of Innovations in Education in Armenia for the International Scientific-Educational Center of RA NAS is an opportunity to offer educational innovations from our republic to the international community, as well as to see trends and examples of projects that can be implemented in our country. The competition ecosystem is more than just the contest rounds, it is an entire community of innovators, experts and juries. In this regard, we are opening the door to important opportunities for cross-country cooperation - conducting research, joint events, and exchange programmes.’
Diana Koroleva, Director of the Competition of Innovations in Education
‘There is great interest in innovations in education today. In conditions of turbulence, when the education system is constantly adapting to new circumstances, it is grassroots innovations that can often become a source of new and quick solutions. The innovation competition in education is not just a competition between project teams, but also involves training, research, and development of the professional community. This year, the ecosystem of the competition has expanded: in addition to colleagues from Kazakhstan, representatives from Armenia and Georgia have also joined us. I am sure that the competition will help us learn about brilliant, new, original breakthrough projects that will play an important role in improving the quality and accessibility of education in our countries.’