Winner of the International KIVO Competition of Innovations in Education Announced in Nizhny Novgorod

The final 10 teams presented their projects to experts in a pitching session at the finals of the KIVO Competition of Innovations in Education. The project defence and award ceremony took place as a side event of the Global Impact Conference, an international platform that brings together experts in the field of sustainable development.

The Competition of Innovations in Education is a federal project of the Institute of Education. Both individual creators and teams can participate.

More than 6,000 projects have been received and assessed over KIVO’s nine-year history. In 2022, the organisers received 419 applications, including from Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Armenia, as well as Germany, France, Israel, Indonesia, Malaysia, and others as part of KIVO International. The finals of the competition were held in Nizhny Novgorod at the site of the new campus of Rosatom's corporate university, the Mayak Academy named after A D Sakharov.

Diana Koroleva, Head of the Laboratory for Educational Innovation Research

It is important that KIVO has once again confirmed its international status at a time when the world is changing and new demands are being made on education. ‘Grassroots’ innovations, ie those initiatives that go from users to formal structures, respond well to the demands of society. They are the catalysts and drivers of educational change, but they need support. As a competition, we are building bridges between innovators from the Russian regions and other countries, and representatives of large international corporations that can provide this support.

This year, the competition’s partners were Abai Kazakh National Pedagogical University (KazNPU), the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, the Prosveshchenie Group of Companies, the Department of Education and Science of Moscow, Skolkovo Open University, MAXIMUM Educational Company, the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, the Association of Children's Goods Industry Enterprises, Impact Hub Moscow and Rosatom State Corporation.

Tatiana Terentyeva, Deputy Director General for Human Resources, ROSATOM

Everyone has an interest in the development of education—the state, corporations, business and society. Innovative solutions are more important than ever before. It is through their implementation that education remains relevant and meets today's challenges.

More than 80 experts worked on the evaluation of projects. The biggest competition was in the categories New Methodologies (166 applications), New Skills, Competencies and Literacy (107 applications), Digital Transformation (67 applications) and TEACHing (61 applications).

‘Every year, a large percentage of projects are IT-related,’ notes Diana Koroleva. ‘It seems to me that there is another important trend this year: well-being, which has acquired a new connotation since the pandemic. In the post-pandemic reality, it is important for us to have comfortable interaction between participants of the educational process. For example, the ‘Education Preparedness Index in COVID-19 (EPIC)’ project from Yerevan assesses the readiness of the educational system to emergencies.

‘In addition, topics related to the “digital” sphere become more relevant every year. What is special is that our innovators are not just proposing digitisation, but a digital transformation of the actual process and the resources for it. For example, the idea of the Digital Mentors project is to train school librarians to become digital mentors for pupils and teachers.’

Sergey Filonovich, member of the Competition jury, Head of the Department of Organisational Behaviour and Human Resource Management

The level of the finalist projects is good; they are all interesting and, most importantly, very diverse. I also think this is important: education should be diverse, which means that methodology, content and technology are all important.

Anna Blyakhman, Director, HSE Campus in Nizhny Novgorod, member of the KIVO jury

It is interesting that all the projects that made it into the final round reflect the current zeitgeist in one way or another. There are several projects related to inclusion; there are also projects aimed at increasing productivity and projects promoting different levels of communication between people.

I was particularly impressed by the Net Junior project; I was very pleased with the team of creators in addition to the relevance of the topic and the high degree of elaboration. In particular, Maxim Pichulev, who presented the project at the pitch, felt at ease and comfortable in the competition environment. I saw a character who was passionate about his idea and engaged in an open dialogue with the experts. This is exactly the level to which we aspire in the field of education.

The team project led by Maxim Pichulev won the audience award and a diploma in the category ‘Designing the Future Together’, which was presented by Anna Blyakhman, Director of HSE University-Nizhny Novgorod.

Maxim Pichulev

School students today lack a common information environment where they can work together on new projects and participate in competitions. On our web platform, pupils register, list their strengths, and get together to form teams. We are developing a system of communication with investors and in the future, hopefully, we will have a list of partners with whom participants can cooperate.

The team from Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU) with its LEAN.PRODUCTION project—a digital simulator for lean production training—was the winner of KIVO 2022. The creators of the project will receive an educational grant of 150,000 roubles from HSE University. In addition, the project won a nomination from the Prosveshchenie publishing house.

Vladislav Tereschenko and Valeriy Leventsov, Project LEAN.PRODUCTION

Initially, our simulator was part of an online training course, but then customers from the industry came to us and it was clear that the industry needed it too.

Following the pitch session, the competition partners announced their own nominations for the finalists with special prizes:

16-25—Career Guidance Board Game. Winners in two categories:

• Winner in the Abai Kazakh National Pedagogical University category
• Winners in the MAXIMUM education platform category

Quest in a Cube—Quest game replacing traditional excursions to IT clubs and ‘quantoriums’. Winners in two categories:

• Winners in the MAXIMUM education platform category
• Winners in the Prosveshchenie publishing house category

School Librarians - Digital Mentors—A tool to improve digital literacy for education professionals. Winners in the HSE University Laboratory for Educational Innovation Research category

Pythia—An illustrated story book for children with dyslexia, dysgraphia and learning difficulties. Winners in four categories:

• Winner in the Rosatom Corporate Academy category
• Winner in the Impact Hub Moscow category
• Winner in the Abai Kazakh National Pedagogical University category
• Winner in the International Scientific and Educational Centre of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia category

Family Robotics—Student family robotics lab. Winners in two categories:

• Winners in the Prosveshchenie publishing house category
• Winners in the International Scientific and Educational Centre of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia category

EDUCATION PREPAREDNESS INDEX IN COVID-19 (EPIC)—A tool for measuring the education system’s preparedness for emergencies. Winners of the International Scientific and Educational Centre of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia category

Net Junior—A platform to help school students find like-minded people to create start-ups. Winners in four categories:

• Winners in the Skolkovo Open University category
• Winners in the Rosatom Corporate Academy category
• Winners in the HSE Nizhny Novgorod Campus category
• Winners in the Abai Kazakh National Pedagogical University category

Spike—A tutor support service for educational products. Winners in the MAXIMUM educational platform category

FORA VISION—FIGITAL PLATFORM—for organising physical education classes in a hybrid or distance format. Winners of the International Scientific and Educational Centre of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia category.