An “Advertising and Public Relations” team won the first stage of the Russian National competition “Eureka!”

We spoke to the team members, third and fourth-year students, about the competition’s tasks and their project’s next steps. 

The first round of the Russian National competition “Eureka!” Finished on the 26th of November, dedicated to the “Science” National project. And our students won, among others of course! 

33 universities from 20 Russian cities took part in the competition. More than 50 student projects were received. The jury award was rewarded for “compliance with the brief and completeness of the topic” and received by an HSE team for their project “Don’t teach a scientist”. The members of the team - “Advertising and Public Relations” 4th-year students: Evelina Alkhimova, Elizaveta Kuzyakina, and Anna Pushkova. We talked to them about the competition’s task, their project and their further fate. 

What was in the brief? 

Participants were given 6 briefs to choose from. We chose this insight from our project: a desire to get support at creating one’s career. The barrier was that practising science, receiving an academic degree - is boring and will not bring a career and financial success. 

Our team set a goal to form a perception of scientific activity as a perspective and highly paid path.

Elizaveta Kuzyakina
A 3d-year student

The main message that we were giving sounds like this: “Do you want to build a successful career? - Get involved with science!”
Our team set a goal to form a perception of scientific activity as a perspective and highly paid path. So, all our efforts were aimed at making the visual and the internal content attractive and interesting for young people. 

Tell us briefly about your project - what was it about?

 We decided that mentoring would be an ingenious solution. There are dance and vocal shows with mentors, but no one has ever seen one with scientists. With their help, the people who get selected, will try conducting their research and write a scientific paper.

Evelina Alkhimova
A 3d-year student

 “Don’t teach a scientist” - is a mentoring project for a successful research-scientist career start. Under the guidance of mentors, students develop and implement ideas for their research. Participants of the project have educational lectures throughout, take part in quizzes (students vs. scientists) and online workshops. The showing of the final projects happens at the final conference. Best works will be rewarded, and authors will get an opportunity to publish their research in a scientific journal or get a scientific internship.

The project’s slogan is “Don’t teach a scientist until they teach you!”. We want it to be a big effective project, where you can work experience, show off your skills and finally make everything you have dreamed of coming true. 

How did you organise the work in your team - who was responsible for what?

We always worked together, often called each other on Zoom and had regular brainstorming sessions :)

Also, we want to thank Rimma Pogodina, our curator, for the online-meetings, where we discussed the brief. She also showed is different methods for generating creative solutions, which helped us bring our idea to life. We mostly did our research for target audience snd themes online, looked for new ideas and tried to adjust them for our project, but then a totally new idea was formed. 

 My favourite step is brainstorming. It has its difficulties: you can’t criticise anyone’s ideas, can’t think about the budget or how one everything will be realised, and, most importantly - on what money. We had no budgeting.

Evelina Alkhimova
A 3d-year student

What are the next steps for your project?

The second round of the competition is starting on the 15th of December, and we will be bringing the project to life then. We are going to work on promoting the project, develop a strategy and prepare a media plan.

What was the hardest and the most interesting part?

The most interesting step is, no doubt, the process of creating an idea for the project. That step was the most exciting, but also the hardest.

 I am always interested in creativity: when you are looking for different ideas, adjust them for your project, but in the end, something unique is born. Of course, it was also interesting to learn about all the nuances of national projects - especially as I face them all in my studying as a final year student.

Anna Pushkova
A 4-th year student

 Congratulations and good luck in the next round!