MINSK, 27 January (BelTA) – The National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (NASB) hopes to hold the Science Festival 2021 offline, NASB Chief Academic Secretary, Chairman of the Council of Young Scientists Andrei Ivanets said at a press conference on 27 January, BelTA has learned.
“We hope that in 2021 our annual international conference “Youth in Science” will bring together representatives of councils of young scientists from research organizations that make part of the International Association of Academies of Sciences. We plan to hold our traditional Science Festival in the Central Botanical Garden of the NASB offline. We also hope to organize the competition of student research projects SCITEEN 2021 and the nationwide youth forum Intellectual Belarus,” Andrei Ivanets informed. In 2020 the plans to hold a number of scientific forums were affected by the pandemic.
Andrei Ivanets also spoke about the support for young scientists on the part of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. “The competition “100 young talents of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus” is held every year. Our laureates demonstrate very good results. They have developed a technology to produce modified siRNA-based drugs to treat socially significant diseases; they are also working in the field of bio-informatics, including computer modeling of potential drugs against COVID-19,” he said.
Several awards for young scientists were established in 2019. These are the prizes named after academicians Zhores Alferov (in the field of physics, mathematics, computer science, technology and engineering), Vasily Kuprevich (in the field of biology, chemistry and earth sciences, medicine and agricultural sciences) and the first president of the Academy of Sciences Vsevolod Ignatovsky (in the field of humanities and social sciences). In 2020, seven young scientists became laureates of these awards.
According to Andrei Ivanets, manufacturers are also involved in supporting young researchers, which testifies to the practical value of their research outputs. Thus, in 2020, the contest “Technology Offers of Belarusian Young Scientists for LG Electronics Inc. 2020” was held for the first time.
