Press releases

MINSK, 6 October (BelTA) – Winners of the 100 Ideas for Belarus contest will present their R&D ideas during the international science and practice conference 21^st Century: Youth of Intellect in Sochi on 19 October. The conference will be held as part of the 19th World Festival of Youth and Students (WFYS), the press service of the Belarusian national youth union BRSM told BelTA.

The conference has been held by the upper chamber of the Russian parliament since 2014 with assistance of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The conference is expected to become one of the most important events of the festival’s intellectual platform. Experts are expected to select the most promising projects with the largest commercial potential. Participants of the conference will discuss the practical assimilation of R&D products.

The BRSM press service reminded that Chairwoman of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation Valentina Matviyenko invited young Belarusian scientists to participate in the conference when she met with them on the sidelines of the fourth Forum of Regions of Belarus and Russia in Moscow.

Anastasia Lapko, research officer at the Bioorganic Chemistry Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, will take part in the conference among other people. In 2015 Anastasia Lapko won the contest 100 Ideas for Belarus by coming up with a medical sorbent, which allows reducing the excessive number of antibodies in blood. “The R&D product has already passed lab trials. Clinic trials are now ahead of it. The sorbent can be used to treat autoimmune diseases. It can be used during transplantations when it is necessary to rapidly reduce the number of antibodies in order to prevent the rejection of the transplanted organ,” explained Anastasia Lapko. The implementation of her idea is now part of the state research program 2016-2020 Chemical Technologies and Materials.

During the conference in Sochi the young scientist intends to meet her peers, share the best practices, and discuss opportunities for commercializing her project. “I’d love to demonstrate that Belarus has decent and promising R&D projects. We are not stuck in the mud,” stressed Anastasia Lapko. She is convinced that her product can produce great benefits since in Belarus there are 50 people per 100,000 residents, who suffer from autoimmune diseases. As much as 5-7% of the planet’s population suffers from autoimmune diseases. Foreign analogs are much more expensive than the Belarusian product. It is also important that the likelihood of negative side effects from using the Belarusian sorbent is much lower.

The 19th World Festival of Youth and Students (WFYS) is scheduled for 14-22 October and is expected to become the largest event in the sphere of international youth interaction. Over 20,000 people from 150 countries are expected to attend the festival. A chamomile with petals of different colors has been chosen as the festival’s symbol. It represents the continuity of traditions, connections that span generations, peace and unity of the entire international community. Colored pixels play a major part as a token of unity of all the young people in the world in the age of information technologies. The festival is meant to consolidate young people of the world, encourage interethnic and intercultural cooperation.

The project 100 Ideas for Belarus was launched in 2011 and has become one of the most popular contests among young Belarusians since then. The project went international when the first international exhibition and presentation 100 Ideas for CIS took place in April 2016.