Ekaterina Blinova, Associate Professor at the Department of Management and Production Organization, Head of the Graduate Employment Department of Samara University, was among the winners of the #Fondpotanina25 Competition, and will receive the financial support for developing the Foundation’s project legacy.

The laureates include 50 organizations, the projects of which, supported by the Foundation earlier, gave impetus to developing new long-term programs and areas of work or creating new organizations, as well as influenced development of the sector as a whole.

Of 153 applications submitted to the competition, 132 were admitted to the examination. 106 organizations participated in the public vote “Recognition of the Community”, presenting about 200 projects in their media materials. Three organizations with the highest number of votes will receive 1 million rubles each. The total amount of the grant fund is over 151 million rubles.

Among the winners of the competition, there are museum organizations (27) and universities (16). Herewith, other target audiences that the Foundation works with are also represented, including two endowment foundations and five NGOs. The competition geography is quite diverse: the winners represent 30 regions. The leaders in the number of applications were Moscow (13), St. Petersburg (9), the Sverdlovsk Region (7). In the Krasnoyarsk Krai, the Nizhny Novgorod Region and the Perm Region, there are six winners each; the Moscow Region and the Republic of Tatarstan are represented by five laureates; the Samara Region and the Tomsk Region – by two laureates.

“The competition presents systemic changes that have become possible due to our grantees’ professionalism and creative approach. Their project legacy is an example of effective teamwork, the strategic approach, and partnerships between specialists and organizations from different fields. The Foundation has grown up with these initiatives, they have become part of our history and reputation. And more importantly, by implementing projects supported by the Foundation, the organizations themselves grew and developed. Today they are authors of model practices and recognized leaders of the community’s professionalization”, said Oksana Oracheva, CEO of the Potanin Foundation.
The programs and courses developed by teachers who have won in the #Fondpotanina25 Competition are now successfully implemented in universities.

“In 2015, with the Potanin Foundation’s support, the Institute of Economics and Management developed the High Technology Business Management Master’s Program. At that time, I was the developer of two subjects within the program. Then I and my colleagues applied for development of the end-to-end program product for three subjects of the program and won a grant”, explained Ekaterina Blinova.

The end-to-end program product combines three subjects: Engineering Economics, Project Management and Risk Management. During one of the courses calculations are made, the results of which are then used in the next course. In general, the end-to-end program product is aimed at preserving and strengthening masters’ achievements, so that the master students’ knowledge and practices did not remain only part of the curriculum, but were applied, when they write their master’s theses.

“Since this Master’s program is in English, and international students study there, we have set two major ways of development within the grant received. These are promotion, popularization of the program at the international level, and support for our graduates – namely, motivating their employment in Russian companies”, concluded Ekaterina Blinova.