Rostov-on-Don has completed a selection stage of the Innovation Lift contest for young entrepreneurs, portal DELOru reports.

The project is reportedly aimed at bringing the youth into technology-focused entrepreneurship, helping the region’s innovation infrastructure development, and building partnerships between science and business. The best projects are expected to be “sent to Russia’s Futurussia Skolkovo innovators community for further packaging and commercialization in real markets.”

The expert panel scrutinizing innovative ideas and their market viability reportedly included Vasiliy Vysokov, chairman of Center-Invest Bank; Sergei Ryzenko, president of the Rostov Regional Employers Union; Viktor Khalyn, head of OPORA Russia’s Rostov regional office; Valery Sadovov, CEO of the South Agency for Competence Development, a not-for-profit; Ekaterina Ponyatovskaya, vice-president of Russia’s Presidential Program Alumni Association; and Grigory Pototsky, regional representative of Russia’s Futurussia Skolkovo innovators community and director of the Center for Business and Innovation Technology Development.

The project is said to consist of a number of stages; teams will be reportedly built from among most successful candidates to take part in practical sessions aimed at implementing their innovative projects, as well as on-the-job training sessions in innovation regions of Russia and beyond.

Tatyana Pototskaya, deputy director of the Center for Business and Innovation Technology Development, was quoted as saying, “at certain contest stages, the teams will be aided through consulting on documentation preparation as well as funding from Skolkovo’s Development Fund, the Bortnik Fund or Russian Venture Company—depending on what stage an idea gets approved at.”

The Innovation Lift contest will be a monthly event, to be held over the next year, the source added.