Report on the Performance of Evrika Foundation in Year 2013
SUMMARY
This report on the performance of Evrika Foundation reveals the achievements over the past year 2013 and reviews all results, following the fulfilment of the objectives and tasks of the organisation as well as the implementation of its programmes.
We managed to keep our traditions and found new fields to express ourselves. Time shows us new directions, where we need to look for changes and take steps to identify new contacts, partnerships and bring ours and other organisations’ skills together to increase the capacity of our Foundation, and thus maintain, and even multiply, current results.
І. Attaining the non-profit objectives of the Foundation
The programmes of the Foundation form the backbone of all activities related to the implementation of our objectives. Therefore, we are going to review and analyse all running programmes in order to lay the foundations for discussing the priorities in future. Over the past years, these priorities were associated with one main idea – identifying and supporting young talents, that of school students in particular, in order to assist their development, to create new areas of interest, which, in turn, would lead them towards future careers in scientific, technical and technologic fields. The demand for next-generation workforce in all industries and science makes the latter a priority in all our activities and programmes.
1.Acquiring knowledge in the area of natural sciences, technical and business skills and culture among young generation; supporting training, qualification, and retraining of young people with manifested skills in the area of natural sciences, technical fields, and management.
Ensuring that young people acquire new skills is a public duty and a personal obligation. Therefore, education becomes a national priority, which covers not only schools and universities, but structures of the civil society as well. New requirements have been imposed on the quality of education, on the knowledge and skills of people in training, and the way these skills meet the demands of industrial production in various scientific fields and public procurement. This has urged us to take into account upcoming standards when dealing with our objectives and tasks, which are also defining the content of activities that our Foundation supports and implements.
The Talents Programme, in particular, lies at the basis of a wide range of incentives, necessary for the implementation of the main task, which is related to: acquiring new skills, and creating the idea that our future will be built on incessant learning and professional growth throughout one’s purposeful life and that of all of us together. Economies will become increasingly dependent on the degree to which their employees have been trained, also on their skills to look for and explore innovations, on their abilities to apply new technologies in all aspects of life. In view of this, the principal matter of this programme involves identification and development of incentives for children and young people who have managed to demonstrate capabilities and predilection for novelties in acquiring knowledge and skills in various fundamental and applied areas. These include granting scholarships to school and university students, encouraging young scientists to participate in international science fora and qualifications, organising summer research schools and universities, etc.
Over the reported period, these activities have played a major role in our overall performance. Certain traditions have been established in the competitions for selecting scholarship awardees and the results are overwhelming. The committees follow the principles of objectivity and transparency rigidly. All established rules and criteria are rigorously observed.
The scholarships granted by us in ten troublesome fields, in fact, cover all career clusters which have been identified as priority tasks by our Foundation.
41 students, all with high academic achievements and results in national and international competitions, contests, scientific conferences and many more, were shortlisted for an interview in the closing round of the competitions for the 10 individual and personalised scholarships.
The second group of our Foundation’s scholarship beneficiaries won medals in international contests in mathematics, computer science, physics, biology, and chemistry. We should take pride in our prize-winning scholarship recipients. So far, our secondary school clubs in maths, information technology, physics, chemistry and biology scored high in year 2013. Bulgarian mathematicians won three medals in the 54th International Mathematical Olympiad. All three participants are already among the scholarship awardees of Evrika Foundation. Bulgarian students in informatics also achieved high results at the 25th International Olympiad in Informatics which was held in Brisbane, Australia. Competing with more than 300 students from 80 participating countries, our contestants were the winners of one gold medal, two silver medals and one bronze medal, and ranked 5th in the competition. The Bulgarian team brought home five medals from the 44th International Physics Olympiad. Our long-established scholarship winner Katerina Naydenova, a student at the Nikola Obreshkov High-School of Natural Science and Mathematics in Kazanlak, is the sole winner of gold medal among all participants. Our participants in the 45th International Chemistry Olympiad in Moscow brought home two bronze medals and a certificate of merit. Our participants were winners of one bronze medal and a certificate of merit during the 24th International Biology Olympiad. All these students deserved the right to become recipients of our scholarship.
During the 2013/2014 academic year, we awarded 41 scholarships, of which 33 to university and 8 to school students.
Within the frameworks of the Talents Programme, for over fourteen years we have been participating in the organisation and financial support of all activities of the Students’ Institute of Mathematics and Informatics.
We created this project fourteen years ago in collaboration with the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the St. Cyril and St. Methodius International Foundation and the Union of Mathematicians in Bulgaria. Created as such, the Students’ Institute proved to be a long-term programme, which promotes the work of prominent Bulgarian scientists with school students who have demonstrated an aptitude for mathematics and informatics. Every year it gives student conferences, holds both interviews for selecting the participants in the Research Science Institute /RSI/ at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and summer research schools, student workshops and workshops for teachers in mathematics, informatics, and information technologies.
Over the fourteen years of its existence, it has witnessed thousands of students and several hundred teachers of mathematics, informatics, and information technologies. Many of those who had been trained there continue to be present in its premises, playing the role of tutors for younger students.
The currently established way of work with talented school students not only assists them in improving their skills but also helps their teachers in identifying and acquiring contemporary methodology in mathematics and informatics. During the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair /Intel ISEF/, the Students’ Institute of Mathematics and Informatics was announced one of the world’s leading scientific institutions working with school students with an aptitude for mathematics and informatics.
The inexhaustible list of activities included in the Institute’s 2013 Programme was topped by the Thirteenth Student Conference, whose mathematics, informatics and information technology sections were filled by 62 school students and over 20 teachers. A total of 55 projects were presented, of which 22 covered mathematics and 33 – informatics and information technologies. Later on, the thirteenth student section registered 76 projects, of which 26 covered mathematics and 50 covered informatics and information technologies. These projects were created by 110 students in 8th through to 12th grades from 30 national secondary schools located in 19 towns. Over 60 teachers, lecturers, scientists and university students participated as scientific team leaders and consultants. Awards were given to the best. Diplomas of distinction were awarded to 7 projects in mathematics and 20 in informatics and information technologies.
All awardees of diplomas of distinction were allowed to participate in the upcoming Summer Research School. It was held in July and August 2013. Its academic programme consisted of lectures, workshops and individual work on certain topics and tasks. In its second stage, the school organised a workshop for school students and teachers in mathematics, informatics and information technologies. Participants were selected by the team leaders of the projects involved in the competition; and young teachers were to learn from their colleagues’ experience.
In 2013 we sent two representatives of the Students’ Institute to participate in the prestigious six-week research school, which is held every summer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology /MIT/, Boston, USA. They were both part of the world’s elite student mathematicians there. Bulgarian participants’ achievements, together with the fact that they ranked among the most successful participants in the school, served as a sufficient proof of the efficient work at the Students’ Institute of Mathematics and Informatics.
Over the year, we also continued working with the clubs which were established four years earlier under the “Student Clubs in Science and Technics” Project. Over the past two years, the Ministry of Education and Sciences allocated considerable European funds for supporting the clubs in schools, which made the organisation of various activities a reality. We provided mainly methodological support. Our skills and knowledge proved to be beneficial, while our experience helped in the identification of sustainable contacts among all clubs and their participation in various European incentives. They had all prepared a programme for the European Science Day for Youth, with the theme being “Water for Thought”; they also organised celebrations of science and technology at school, and took part in our student competitions. Their representatives took part in the Young Talents Contest. The subsequent award winners and their projects represented us at the Science Expo in Abu Dhabi, UAE, organised by MILSET. So far, our experience in joint collaboration for the benefit of school students has yielded promising results and we believe this can and should be developed in future. We are ready to provide support and establish schools for teaching and developing the existing capacity of scientific team leaders of the school clubs and those of the extracurricular activities. A limited number of short-term courses are available within the frameworks of projects created by various incentives.
This programme foresees and partially funds the individual projects of young scientists and experts during international scientific events.
2. Stimulating the activities of young people in the fields of science, technics, research, inventions, and innovation.
The Scientific Research Programme plays a key role in the implementation of this objective. We plan to introduce changes in the way it functions in order to be able to find new opportunities for supporting scientific work among young scientists and university students. We shall do our best to find new incentives to encourage the achievements of these young scientists by means of organising new contests for those of them who have promising scientific ideas but have been left outside the group of candidates competing for the Evrika Award for achievements in science. The financial means of this programme could contribute to the initiation of new competitions with other organisations and could ensure awards for certain scientific achievements. The Programme envisages the provision of financial resources for paying the fees, which are compulsory for publishing scientific articles in prestigious scientific journals – referred publications with an impact factor. This is an important step in the development of young scientists and would serve as a new opportunity, different to the existing ones. This should be possible only in cases when the scientists are under the age of 35; and when teamwork is involved, young people under the specified age should constitute more than fifty percent of the team.
Our organisation hopes to achieve prominent results in the establishment of long-lasting relations between school and science through the implementation of the joint project, which has been initiated among Evrika Foundation, the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Union of Scientists in Bulgaria. Its objective is to unite all efforts and implement all tasks that would bring children and young people closer to science and technology, and would develop their creativity and skills. This is a long-term project envisaging initiatives among children and young people of various age groups. We will start by organising visits of prominent Bulgarian scientists to different schools in the country.
We will strive to keep and develop the noble traditions when implementing national contests for school students. Once again, during the past year covered by this report, “The Cosmos – Present and Future of Humankind” Competition has remained the most remarkable one. We held its XV edition. The competition covered five subject areas and it attracted the participation of a total of 1136 school students during the past year. Applicants came from various parts of our country; and their number increases with each and every passing year. This is due to contestants’ competitive spirit and the attractive opportunity to win their awards and meet the first Bulgarian cosmonaut. We won the support and assistance of teachers, leaders of clubs and schools, and that of many parents. 12 school students, aged 14 to 18, competed in the most difficult and complex area of the competition, which requires original thinking, and is related to ideas in the field of scientific and technical experiments. Todor Ivanov, a Kardzhali native, made an unforgettable debut by introducing his innovative project entitled “Astronomical Photography Using ALccd5 CMOS and Olympus Cameras”, and proved to be the right candidate for the highest award. The competition was attended by 89 school students, whereas another 218 students sent us computer-generated graphic works of the Outer Space. Young poets and writers also made a contribution to the contest with their 85 pieces of art on the subject of Outer Space. The group of young artists was most numerous – 738 skilled students of 74 schools. Tradition required that we grant all awards on the Day of the National Revival Leaders. All guests of the ceremony observed with greatest attention and curiosity the presentations made by the winners in all five areas, as well as the one entitled “Does Life on Mars Exist and First Manned Space Flight”, which was presented by the Chairman of the Specialist Jury – Assoc. Prof. Tanya Ivanova, PhD. The culmination of the event was the appearance of the first Bulgarian cosmonaut Major Gen. Georgi Ivanov who handed out the awards and addressed a warm welcome to all contestants.
Throughout the year, Evrika Foundation continued performing its role as a national coordinator of the activities organised by the International Movement for Leisure Activities in Science and Technology (MILSET). The managing body of the international organisation assigned to us the dissemination of information and the clarification of the terms and conditions to be observed by Bulgarian participants in activities and projects, as well as those of its European structure.
We established all prerequisites in our schools and science and technics clubs which are necessary for holding the European Science Day for Youth. This year it was dedicated to water. Most active were the participating clubs from the towns of Sevlievo, Bourgas and Rousse. Bulgarian participation was strong in the Seventh International Science Photo Contest which gathered contestants from 68 countries and featured the topic “When Art Meets Science”. For a second time in the history of the contest, a participant from Bulgaria wins the greatest award. The Bulgarian awardee is a young teacher from a school based in Blagoevgrad, Krasimir Matarov, whereas Eva Valcheva, a student at the St. Kliment Ochridski University of Sofia, won a third award. The jury’s twenty seven members found Krasimir’s photo to be the best in all three areas – scientific phenomena, aeronautics and outer space, and fauna. By order of the President of MILSET, we handed out the awards during a ceremony in Sofia.
We provided organisational and methodological support for participation in many other international events which are linked to MILSET – the 2013 European Space Camp in Norway, a Competition for the selection of logo for the newly-established MILSET newspaper, and Expo-Sciences International /ESI/. In year 2013, our three contestants in the World Expo of Science in Abu Dhabi, UAE, were awarded diplomas of distinction.
These constitute a small part of the achievements of our participants in international contests. They are preceded by many other events at national level, which are necessary for shortlisting the most honourable ones who would maintain our prestige at international competitions. Our closest and most long-lasting relations are with the National Palace of Children. Together, we organise competitions in almost all troublesome scientific and technical fields. As per tradition, and depending on methodological requirements, the above are organised in two age groups – scientific and technical competitions for school students in 5th to 8th grades and for the ones in 9th to 12th /Year I to Year IV/ grades; national competitions in scale aircraft, automobile, ship, and rocket modelling; the national competition of best student projects in the area of ecology and the preservation of the environment; the national “Nature – Our Home” Contest for students in grades 5 to 8. The practical stages of the competitions were organised in 3 modules – natural sciences, construction and alternative energy sources – solar energy. Contemporary education software as well as devices and communication tools were at hand for the implementation of the tasks. Students were given high scores by the committees of university tutors and experts.
As for the national science and technical competitions for the school students in higher grades, 9th through to 12th, 78 participants were allowed to defend their works in public presentations. They presented and successfully defended their projects and theses in the areas of: electronic appliances, devices and communication tools, software products, business projects, chemistry, food industry, biology, environmental science, physics and astronomy, farming and energy efficiency. An exhibition of student art works was held side by side with the science and technical competitions.
We work successfully with the National Palace of Children, the Ministry of Education and Sciences, the Bulgarian Federation of Automodel Sports, the Bulgarian Federation of Ship Model Sports and the Bulgarian Federation of Scale Aircraft Modelling, when organising national school competitions in scale aircraft, automobile, ship and rocket modelling. 208 children and school students from all over the country participated in the closing round of the national competitions in 2013. It is by means of these competitions that we promote design skills and creative activities, and stimulate the development of young people’s sense of responsibility, organisation, discipline, precision and accurateness. We have noted that the number of students engaging in modelling clubs tends to increase and contestants scoring high results are getting younger. Actively-engaged children and students set new personal and national records and demonstrate high performance in prestigious national and international contests and tournaments.
We successfully keep up our joint activities under the long-term “Nature – Our Home” Programme. We strive to attract new applicants and enhance young people’s interest in biology, environmental science and the preservation of the environment. By means of various methods and forms of activities, we aim to provoke students to act responsibly towards nature and the world we live in, and try saving and preserving it for the generations to come. In 2013, this national competition attracted 182 students in 5th to 8th grades. We were partners in the organisation of the Srebarna International Forum on Ecology and Environment. This event encourages young people to involve in research and environmental protection activities and promotes the unique natural heritage of Srebarna Reserve. Its award winners took part in an international competition in ecology. Over 920 participants from 18 regions in the country took part in the 2013 Srebarna International Forum on Ecology, whereas the national competition for Best Student Project in the Field of Ecology and Environment Protection attracted 70 contestants and 21 projects. The eco-forum was accompanied by “The Earth – Our Home” National Competition, which showed 310 paintings, appliqué designs, posters, and 220 poems, stories, and essays.
For a second consecutive year, we provided support to our most active and successful participants in our contests, namely the students at the “Vale” Computer Club based in “Zarya-1858” Community Centre in the town of Haskovo. For yet another year, we were partners in the organisation of the competition where more than 300 students, from Bulgaria, Macedonia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Sri Lanka, USA, United Kingdom, New Zealand, India, and China, revealed the magic of digital graphic designs, and managed to both show the world through their eyes and share their feelings, emotions and personal experiences. It is the first time that the competition has featured two new groups, focusing on children with special educational needs and those lacking parental care.
As a co-sponsor, Evrika Foundation has a long tradition in supporting the Student Science Session, the topic being “Physics – My Window to the World”. At the session, 69 students from 22 secondary schools and 2 national observatories presented 46 scientific projects. An interesting discussion took place over the topic “Tasks to be Met When Teaching Physics at Schools and Universities”, focusing on educational innovations, dissemination of scientific and methodological journals at schools, translation of textbooks, extracurricular activities and the burning issue of brain drain.
Our deep desire to assist in the creation of new challenges for talented young people in the field of information technologies urged us to humbly accept Musala Soft’s invitation to be partners in the closing round of the CodeIT National Programming Competition. Prize-winner was our scholarship recipient for many years, Veselin Georgiev, which proves once again the fact that Evrika Foundation makes wise investments for talented young people and contributes immensely to the development of national science and education.
We focused on young people in the universities as well. We are establishing contacts in certain universities and are seeking to create influence through our scholarship recipients. Depending on the needs, we assist them in the implementation of their projects or the ones involving our participation. Over the past year, together with the Episkop Konstantin Preslavsky University of Shumen and the Union of Mathematicians in Bulgaria, we organised the National Mathematics Competition for University Students. It attracted the participation of over 150 students from 30 university departments and 40 lecturers, who helped in arranging the teams, creating the tasks and assessing the papers. This competition has a long-standing tradition and attracts many candidates, mainly due to the incessant work of the relevant university departments. It has gained sufficient organisational experience, which, we believe, is the main reason to think that this experience should be transferred to other fields of knowledge, especially when it comes to subjects studied at more than one university.
Together with many young scientists and university students, we participated in the initiatives of the European Researchers’ Night, which, by tradition, allows young people to express their skills in the field of science, and scholarly and artistic activities. Among others, a huge number of our prize winners and scholarship recipients are artists, poets and writers who presented their latest achievements.
In 2013 we laid the cornerstone of our Foundation’s participation in the development and organisation of the National Youth Forum under the motto “Green Building for Our Future”, which was held within the frameworks of an international scientific jubilee conference, celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Lyuben Karavelov Higher School of Civil Engineering. This is a distinctive new educational initiative, which aims to promote creative thinking among school and university students, PhD students and young researchers in the field of efficient energy use. 288 scientific projects in 8 different fields were presented within the frameworks of the international conference. In addition, the long-established Young Scientist Contest took place, where most prominent was the young generation of architects and builders from Bulgaria, Romania, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
During the organisation of the Third National Scientific Session on Physics and Engineering Technologies for university students, we took the first steps in what was to become a sustainable collaboration with the Faculty of Physics at the Paisii Hilendarski University of Plovdiv. Apart from the poster presentations of 33 projects made by university students and PhD students, the event accommodated both an exhibition of products of leading Bulgarian companies in the field of physics and engineering technologies, and the school and university student competitions for the Evrika Awards. During the whole scientific session, there was a Photo Exhibition, its topic being “Physics in the World around Us”, which allowed school and university students, who are taking their first steps in the field of natural sciences, to express their imagination and creativity by showing the world of physics through their eyes.
When reporting our Foundation’s achievements in the organisation and realisation of various initiatives, which allow young people to express their skills and knowledge, we should award the first place to our competitions for the Evrika Award for achievements in sciences, for most successful young manager, inventor, and farmer. Some of these competitions took place for the twenty–fourth time, such as the most successful young manager competition, whereas the youngest of these – for achievements in science – already has an eighteen-year record. They have received public recognition and have been acknowledged by many state and public leaders, the media, and last but not least, by young people and their organisations. Prize winners in the 2013 competitions were as follows: for scientific achievements – Slaveya Petrova, a student at Paisii Hilendarski University of Plovdiv; for most successful young manager – Nikolay Boykov, a managing director and member of the Board of Directors of All Channels Group; for young farmer – Damyan Vatev. As for the young inventor competition, certificates were given to two teams – that of Radoslav Katsov and Ivaylo Nenov, and that of Petar Stefanov, Petar Peev, Todor Zhelyazkov, Deyan Ivanov and Plamen Slavchev.
Presenting young people’s experience and good practices serves as a means of multiplying successful professional achievements. This encourages others to follow their example, and motivates prize winners themselves to seek further development opportunities. During competitions we meet them with leading experts in the relevant fields, who not only acknowledge their achievements, but also provide professional advice on the development and generation of new ideas.
For many years now, we have been supporting and maintaining the work of offices providing consultation on: the protection of intellectual property rights; the legal matters concerning our organisation; and the operation of for-profit and non-government organisations. They assist young people in their work and are available to the ones in need throughout the year. An example of our achievements in this field is the Office for Protection of Intellectual Property Rights, which alone, according to its annual report, has provided over 250 free consultations on the protection of intellectual property rights. Consequently, the following were drawn up and filed: four applications for useful model, four applications for inventions and four applications for international trademarks.
Dissemination of information about our Foundation’s activities is made possible through joint projects with the media or publications about certain initiatives. Some of them act as media partners of ours during national competitions. Others show willingness to present our scholarship winners and laureates.
3. Supporting the dissemination of knowledge and information in the field of natural sciences, technics, and economics
Giving publicity to knowledge is part of the process of bringing children and young people closer to science and technics. As a result, it has become a major task for us. We can only slightly influence these activities, since the major part of the knowledge dissemination is made possible mainly through the media – television emissions, periodicals, certain books, and mostly over the Internet. We can contribute by adding, as far as our means allow this, to the resources available for communications and making them more accessible to everyone. Some of our attempts to make an impact are achieved with the help of the National Polytechnic Museum, a long-established partner of ours. We support the implementation of its educational programmes for children. Most of the events, which we organise, take place on the territory of the Museum. In a completely natural way, children’s curiosity meets the enormous museum treasure there. For many years now, the Museum welcomes and keeps the prize-winning projects from our competitions in its collection. The Technitarche newspaper, which we have been releasing jointly with the Museum for twenty years now, serves brilliantly the purpose of knowledge dissemination. It is a unique edition which is available for free to the young visitors to the Museum. Based on the topic of each issue, one can read popular articles about historical events in Bulgarian science and technics, and about scientists and inventors. Very often its illustrations depict paintings of the young children who have participated in our contests. Over the past year the newspaper has become available online, making the edition available to all children.
We meet the requirement for promoting our activities through our Internet website and through the opportunity to publish announcements about our competitions and experience on the websites of other organisations in which we participate and whose audience could become a potential user of this information. Our long-established joint activities with the Nauka Magazine, as well as our joint section “Tribune for Young People” serve as a good example of sustainable collaboration.
4. Participating in international educational, natural science, and technical programmes and projects, and in international youth science and technics collaborations
One of the major objectives of our Foundation is the development of opportunities for international youth science and technics collaboration. Over the past years this idea has become increasingly important and there has been a substantial increase in the number of young people participating in international research teams, science fora, specialised student and young expert exchange, qualification programmes in universities and scientific institutes. Increasing is the allocation of funds from EU Programmes in this field, which makes these activities more easily accessible to young people. In this diversity of activities and events, there exists a small part of activities which are made possible with the direct participation and support of the Foundation. Most of these are being successfully implemented owing to our membership in the Movement for Leisure Activities in Science and Technology (MILSET) and its European chapter MILSET – Europe. For twenty-four years now, under this membership we have been implementing sustainable partnerships with over 100 countries from around the world, mostly European. Their initiatives and activities increase in number and diversity.
We have kept our long-standing partnership with the Institute of Youth Science and Research of Aragon, Zaragoza, Spain. We have kept our associate membership at the International Federation of Inventors’ Associations (IFIA) in order to establish conditions for future participation of our young inventors in fairs and exhibitions of inventions around the world.
We are convinced that in future it would be more sensible for us to seek opportunities for further expansion of joint collaborations with organisations having common scopes of activity, target groups and common interests with regards to activities focusing on children and young people.
5. Some activities related to our non-profit objectives and the place and role of our organisation in the development of cooperation with other organisations and institutions in our country
Over the last few years, the guiding principles of our Foundation have been focused on finding supporters and involving them in common projects. Our experience proves the fact that when different organisations and institutions bring their actions and resources together, the outcomes are most significant and largest in scale.
Traditionally, non-governmental organisations are our most significant partners in supporting young people and children who demonstrate an aptitude for science, technics and technologies. In the past year, examples of beneficial cooperation have been the interactions with the Union of Mathematicians in Bulgaria, the Union of Physicists in Bulgaria, the National Network for Children, the St. Cyril and St. Methodius International Foundation, the Bulgarian Network for Corporate Social Responsibility CSR Bulgaria, etc. Together with them, we organised schools with long-standing traditions, such as the one within the frameworks of the Students’ Institute of Mathematics and Informatics; competitions, such as the one for the Evrika Awards; and conferences, such as those for students from secondary schools specialising in physics, mathematics, and others.
Our membership at the National Network for Children proved to be beneficial. We take active part in the “Education” Expert Working Group and have been appointed leading experts in issues concerning the nurturing of talent in young people. We were invited to participate as the key reporter at the Annual Meeting of the network, during which we introduced our experience in working with students. Following the good practice exchange, we are glad to witness the fact that participants are pleased with the event and identify us as a valuable source of experience and information.
When it comes to the implementation of the objectives and tasks of our Foundation, we have always relied upon the cooperation with state institutions and organisations having initiatives within areas of similar interest and scope. First among these is the Ministry of Education and Sciences and its structures. Our closest and most lasting relations have been with the National Palace of Children. Thanks to our strong partnership, we managed to achieve sustainable success in joint incentives. We enjoy the support of the National Patent Department regarding the organisation of the national young inventor competition.
We follow the long-standing practice to attract the interest of specialised journals in our initiatives. We need to highlight once again the fact that Az Buki newspaper and Nauka magazine provide us with the strongest support. The newspaper features, in a skilful way, all our initiatives and projects, as well as their outcomes. For another consecutive year, it was our media partner in the organisation of many initiatives. Once again, its pages featured the images of the Evrika Award laureates and other scholarship winners.
We strive to expand the circle of media that are well-disposed towards our initiatives because this will increase the significance of our actions and will create a positive attitude towards our long-standing performance, in addition, more young people will gain recognition for their achievements.
Although in a sentence, we need to point our presence on websites and try to provide them with more materials revealing our initiatives and young people’s achievements in the field of science and technics at home and abroad.
* * *
The present report contains mainly facts and achievements for year 2013, regarding the implementation of our Foundation’s major objectives and tasks, which are the reason for its creation, and also regarding our contribution in identifying, developing and stimulating young people and children who demonstrate an aptitude for science and technics. Once again, in the present year characterised by crisis in the development of public initiatives, we managed to demonstrate our strength, preserve and maintain our property, and protect our good name and social standing, created throughout the years.