Competition of Students' Social Initiatives
The Center for Leadership and Volunteer Wor is accepting applications to support HSE students' social projects. This is a unique opportunity to receive funding for a dream project.
• Application deadline: February 20, 2025
• Project implementation dates: from March 15 to November 30, 2025
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500 000
the maximum amount of financing for a project
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1 000 000
the maximum amount of financing for a cooperative project
Who can participate?
- students of any form of education and any HSE campus;
- both individual and group applications are accepted;
- cooperative applications are also accepted (two or more student communities apply with the same social initiative).
Requirements for the application:
- the initiative is aimed at solving socially significant issues and promoting charity and volunteering;
- the initiative belongs to one of the directions of the Competition;
- the initiative is not aimed at making a profit;
- the initiative does not violate the laws of the Russian Federation or local regulations of the Higher School of Economics and complies with the requirements of the Competition Procedure;
- the initiative is scheduled to be organized from March 15 to November 30, 2025.
The spheres of the Competition
The procedure of the Competition
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Submission of the application for the Competition (until February 20, 2025)
Applications are submitted through the EXTRA service on the portal pmo.hse.ru (the recommended application form can be found in Appendix 1 to the Procedure).
During the application process, participants can contact the Center for advice, explanations and technical support on any issues related to participation in the Competition (to get advice, write to the Center for Leadership and Volunteer Work volunteer@hse.ru).
The Center will check the form for compliance with technical requirements within 5 days from the date of filling out the form. Based on the results of the verification, the application is either allowed to participate in the correspondence stage of the Competition, or returned to the participant to eliminate the identified comments. After editing, the application can be resubmitted, provided that the application deadlines are met.
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Correspondence stage of application selection (February 21 — February 26, 2025)
The initiatives allowed to participate in the correspondence stage are evaluated according to 8 criteria. The results of the evaluation of applications in the correspondence stage, as well as the minimum passing score for the face-to-face stage, will be sent to the authors of the applications by mail and published by the Center for Leadership and Volunteer Work on the Competition website.
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In-person application selection stage (March 5 - March 10, 2025)
Applications that have achieved a minimum passing score in the correspondence stage are allowed to enter the full-time stage of the Competition. The in-person stage includes the presentation of a social initiative before an independent expert commission.
The Center for Leadership and Volunteer Work will inform the participants who have achieved the minimum passing score about their participation in the face-to-face stage, as well as about the time and place of its holding, by e-mail (indicated on the application form for the Competition).
Participants are required to provide a presentation (in PDF format) for face-to-face defense no later than 1 business day before the date of the in-person stage.
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Results of the Competition (March 11 — March 14, 2025)
The results of the evaluation of projects during the face-to-face stage of the Competition, as well as the decision to provide them with administrative and financial support, will be sent to the authors of the applications by mail and published by the Center for Leadership and Volunteer Work on the website after the face-to-face stage.
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Realisation of social projects that have received funding (March 15 — November 30, 2025)
As a rule, no more than 3 months are allocated for the implementation of a social project that has received support, unless otherwise specified in the application.
The head of the social project must send the final project implementation report to Center for the Leadership and Volunteer Work no later than 10 working days after the end of the project (the recommended report form can be found in Appendix 2 to the Procedure).
The evaluation criteria
During the correspondence stage, employees of the Center for Leadership and Volunteer Work evaluate applications according to 8 criteria, assigning each from 0 to 3 points:
1. the social initiative corresponds to the stated direction of the Competition;
2. Local communities and/or beneficiaries and/or partners external to the HSE are involved in the social initiative;
3. The purpose of a social initiative is specific, measurable, achievable, and time-limited;
4. The calendar plan of the social initiative is described in detail and corresponds to the scope of the tasks to be solved;
5. The budget for the implementation of the social initiative is realistic and adequate, the planned expenditures are justified and correlated with the expected results of the social initiative;
6. The experience and competencies of the team of participants of the social initiative are correlated with the implementation and expected results of the social initiative;
7. The success of a social initiative and the expected social effect can be measured quantitatively and qualitatively;
8. The presentation of the social initiative is informative, complete and reveals the idea of the social initiative in full.
During the in-person stage, the members of the independent expert commission listen to the presentations of the participants and evaluate social projects according to 8 criteria, assigning each from 0 to 10 points:
1. the relevance and significance of the social problem solved by the Social Project (the necessity and timeliness of solving the specified social problem);
2. uniqueness and targeting of the proposed Social Project (validity of the proposed solution to the social problem);
3. Matching the scale, format, and activities of the Social Project to the stated target audience, goals, and results;
4. the degree of feasibility of the plan and the effectiveness of the implementation of the Social Project (assessment of the achievability of the declared result through the implementation of planned activities);
5. the ability of the team to implement a Social Project (the experience and competencies of the Social Project team correspond to the declared types of activities and results);
6. the quality and significance of the planned social effects (results and benefits) in the implementation of a Social project;
7. assessment of the prospects for further development of the Social Project;
8. the quality of the presentation and presentation of the participants of the Competition for the presentation of the Social Project.
Regulatory documents of the Competition:
• The procedure for holding the Competition of Students' Social Initiatives
• Recommended application form for participation in the Competition of Students' Social Initiatives
• Recommended form of the final report on the implementation of the social project supported by the Competition