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The first orientation webinar for potential participants in the Open International Competition to develop a master plan for the research and technology districts of the Sirius Federal Territory took place on March 11. The event generated a lot of interest. Nearly 150 people participated in it, including about 20 representatives from 11 foreign countries, in particular Bolivia, Iran, Italy, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey and the USA.

The competition was announced on February 8 in Kazan at the Kazanysh International Architectural and Construction Forum by the Chair of the Sirius Federal Territory Council Elena Shmeleva. At the end of February, the application campaign was initiated at the Sirius Talent Summit in Abu Dhabi, which marked the development of partnership relations between the Sirius Educational Center and the UAE Ministry of Education. As Elena Shmeleva noted “We are paying great attention to creating the conditions to attract leading Russian technological entrepreneurs, engineers, developers from high-tech companies, scientists, educators, professional artists, leading athletes, and coaches to Sirius, as well as the best schoolchildren and students from Russia and BRICS countries. Therefore, we believe that in modern Russian history this competition is an unprecedented opportunity to make the federal territory a unique environment for the intellectual and technological development of the Russian Federation and the BRICS countries. Our project will help create a harmonious, science-based, and innovative infrastructure, which will increase the number of Sirius residents from among the most talented youth of the country, and possibly from around the world if we consider future World Youth Festivals and other major international events”.

The webinar participants were introduced to various aspects of the competition area and features of its legal status and told about the Sirius University and the Sirius Scientific and Technological Campus, as well as about the goals and objectives of the competition, the procedure for conducting it, and the terms of reference.

Elena Plishkina, Financial Director of the Innovative Scientific and Technological Center (ISTC) Foundation, drew the audience’s attention to the key role of the Center in strengthening Russia’s technological sovereignty. “Its strategic goal is the formation of scientific and technological activities in accordance with the logic of “big challenges”: from scientific research to commercialization and scaling of high-tech solutions. As of the beginning of 2025, 93 residents with an annual revenue of more than 20 billion rubles were operating on the territory of the ISTC. More than 200 results of intellectual activity have been obtained, and over 30 % of those have been put into production. The key indicators of ISTC development to 2035 assume substantial growth in the number of resident companies and partners of the Center, of high-tech jobs, and of the volume of innovative products and services. We believe it is important to create favorable conditions for attracting scientists, developers, companies and entrepreneurs conducting activities in the priority areas of the Center. It is therefore necessary to create all the conditions for a high quality of life and active, creative, scientific and technological activity.”

As Elena Gershelis, Executive Director of the International Scientific Center for Ecology and Climate Change at the Sirius University of Science and Technology, emphasized, the development of educational environment requires balance with nature, so it is important to create infrastructure in harmony with the unique conditions that Sirius surrounded by beautiful natural complexes has. It is also necessary to minimize the environmental impact of future projects, specifically by means of the “city in a park” approach, which assumes building infrastructure facilities into the ecosystem that people already live in. Elena Gershelis also stressed the principle of maintaining and developing biodiversity, to which Sirius pays great attention. The speaker also noted that it is necessary to provide for centralized management of water resources and the use of the most modern energy-efficient materials and construction technologies. On the one hand, this will ensure climate stability, and on the other, promote adaptability to climate change, because extreme events such as storms and hurricanes are not uncommon in the territory.

Speakers at the webinar also included Aleksey Basharin, assistant to the head of the Talent and Success Educational Foundation, Anton Gusev, Director of the Sirius University of Science and Technology, and Evgeniya Ginter, Director of the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning of the Federal Territory Administration.

Co-founder of Agency for Strategic Development “CENTER” Sergei Georgievskii and the project’s leading analyst Irina Levina took part on behalf of the competition operator.

The webinar participants were able to ask all their questions.

Architectural bureaus and development institutes from around the world are invited to participate in the competition. Applications can be submitted on the official website (en.siriusmasterplan.com) until May 30, 2025. The site also includes information about the terms of the competition and the submission and selection schedule.