Cherkizovo Group backs agrigenetics competition for high school students

Moscow, Russia – September 21 – Cherkizovo Group has partnered with Innagrika, the first national competition in agrigenetics for high school students. Launched by Innopraktika, a non-state development institution, the project is aimed at boosting interest in genetics and artificial selection. Experts from Cherkizovo Lab have joined the project to develop tasks for the competition.

The Innagrika competition is open to grade 9–11 students who take interest in natural science and want to learn more about jobs in the agritech industry. To enter, students need to register on innagrika.ru before October 19. The competition will kick off with an online qualifying tour in the form of testing and conclude following the semi-finals and the finals, which will be held in Voronezh and Nizhny Novgorod in November 2022 and December 2022, respectively.

Cherkizovo Group will be a partner of the competition. Experts from Cherkizovo Lab involved in developing tasks for the participants will also teach them how to operate lab equipment and solve genetics problems. On top of that, students will be invited to have a tour of the lab and take part in informal meetings with experts.

The three winning teams will be selected by an expert jury at the finals, where the leaders will be awarded grants for education at agricultural universities, internships with partner companies, and valuable prizes.

Innagrika is a competition with a focus on tackling challenges facing industry and academia. “By sparking interest in agricultural studies and research among high school students, we want to support the industry in addressing the shortage of skilled professionals in innovation and draw in thousands of young talents to create a pool of highly qualified experts who will drive agriculture forward,” said Vladimir Avdeenko, Head of Agro- and Biotechnology Development at Innopraktika.

“As a major agritech holding, Cherkizovo Group is highly interested in attracting young specialists to the agricultural sector, especially those with a background in genetics and artificial selection. These areas are pivotal to the industry's sustainable development. The Innagrika competition is an opportunity for us to show young inquisitive minds how far the agricultural sector has come in terms of technological progress, and thus inspire new scientific discoveries,” said Rustam Khafizov, Head of Cherkizovo Group’s Innovative Analysis Center.

The Research & Development Laboratory of Cherkizovo Group was launched in 2016 with EUR 10 million worth of investment. The Lab’s total area is 2,000 sq m. It is an active participant in multiple educational and social projects.

Innopraktika is a non-governmental development institution with a mission to promote Russia’s national human capital by fostering an innovation-driven economy.