Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 18 February, an intensive training was held at the International Business Center for participants of the second round of the youth innovation contest “Big Idea Challenge”.

The competition is organized by the British Council in conjunction with the Ministry of Innovation Development, the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Special Education and the University of London Metropolitan in the UK with the support of the British Embassy in Uzbekistan.

The competition will provide an opportunity for university students to work with experienced international professionals in order to develop the skills to implement their innovative ideas and products in the local market. Teams or individual participants from among university students of Uzbekistan can take part in the competition. Participants were encouraged to develop ideas aimed at positive changes in the social sphere.

In total, the project has covered more than 900 students through training; 230 applications were received from student teams, 23 of which were selected to participate in the second round. British specialists were invited to conduct the program - Christopher Lane, Natasha Triaye and Adam Davis, who work in one of the largest start-up accelerators in Europe.

The existing program of the Big Idea Challenge of the University of London Metropolitan is considered one of the most effective and popular, and also has an impressive scale. The university accelerator is the largest on the European continent - it has implemented projects with a total income of about 21 million pounds, created more than 170 new jobs, accumulated investments of 14.2 million pounds sterling. The competition is unique in that it provides students with an extensive vertical support program for enterprises and start-ups.

The competition program is different in that in addition to participating and receiving the main prize, young people will receive training sessions at each stage of the competition. Thus, they will be able to develop and refine their business ideas and become more confident in this direction. Young people will be able to participate in projects in collaboration with students from other countries and get acquainted with the best international practices of developing innovation and entrepreneurship, will also be able to improve their English language skills by participating in trainings and preparing presentations of their projects in English.

At the end of the second stage, participants will present their ideas through video pitching. Video teams will be posted on the web portal for public voting. After that, the judges will determine the main winner of the competition and the five winners. In addition, in the general voting, the team that won the most votes on the online voting platform will win. But this result will not affect the opinion of the jury in choosing the main winner.

Winners will be determined by jury members from among representatives of the Ministry of Innovation Development and the Ministry of Higher Education; experienced entrepreneurs from Uzbekistan; University of London Metropolitan experts and independent experts, teams of coaches from universities in Uzbekistan, mentors and experts on innovation.

The main winner, chosen by the judges, will have the opportunity, online or in person, through one of the team members, to participate in the awards ceremony in London and participate in the weekly Launch Pad event at the University of London Metropolitan in July 2019.