From 27 to 30 June 2024 on the basis of the All-Russian educational centre for training of educational and managerial personnel — Knowledge Centre «Mashuk» (Pyatigorsk) an educational event organised by the Department of State Policy in the sphere of scientific and technological development of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation «SNO mentors» took place. Naida Abdullaeva, Director of the Knowledge Centre, took part in the event from DSMU.

The event was attended by 160 representatives of universities — SNO mentors from all over Russia: from Kamchatka to Kaliningrad. The wide geography of participants, different profile institutions, different specialisation and job descriptions of SNO mentors gave an opportunity to get acquainted, exchange information about SNO work and experience of work with students and to create joint interdisciplinary and profile events (science popularisation) and research works/projects (science) in the future.

The event was opened with a welcoming speech by Denis Sekirinsky, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Russia, followed by a speech by Asadov Ali Gabibovich, Head of the Decade of Science and Technology Support Department of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia, and continued by Anton Serikov, Deputy Director General of the Russian Society «Znanie», Director of the Knowledge Centre «Mashuk».

During four days with curators (mentors) of SNO (160 people from all regions of Russia) in the format of interactive lectures and master classes shared their experience in the process of active dialogue experts and representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia experts and representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia, members of the Coordination Council for Youth Affairs in the scientific and educational spheres of the Presidential Council on Science and Education, specialists and teachers of higher education institutions, trying to determine the role of SNO in the current realities, in the federal scientific and technical program of the Russian Federation.

The aim of the event was to form a community of mentors of student scientific communities included in the regional agenda of scientific-educational and scientific-organisational activities of students. The educational programme was very rich and included interactive lectures, master classes, project development, business games, discussions, quiz.

Representatives of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science Nadezhda Blinkova discussed the work with SNOs, Anna Panarskaya revealed the best practices and presented current trends, experts Anna Zueva, Arina Semenova, Ivan Kostenkov, Anton Robert, Alexander Chubrik, Anna Gneush, Alina Pavlova, Ekaterina Zimakova and others tried to answer non-stop all the questions of SNO mentors and discover ways to develop and improve student scientific societies.

It is gratifying to note that the organisers of the event were as sensitive and attentive as possible to the suggestions of SNO mentors, so at the request to gather a round table with representatives of medical faculties and universities of Russia, a meeting was organised, which resulted in understanding where SNO/SSC of medical universities and medical faculties is moving, a joint chat room was created for the exchange of upcoming events on SNO/SSC.

On the last day of the event for each federal district the work on the formation of OSS roadmaps began, the teams formed problems and solution proposals on the issues of motivation of OSS members, funding and material and technical base, mentoring, OSS document management and holding joint events and satellite events of the annual Congress of Young Scientists, the key event of the decade of science and technology.

Organisers have thought through to the smallest details of the programme, where in addition to, lectures, speakers, were included in the programme starting with physical exercise, three meals a day, variants of team-building activities, KVIZ, musical evening, excursion to historical memorable places of the city of Pyatigorsk and others.

PFUR (Peoples friendship university of Russia) has introduced a chatbot using digitalisation and automation for SNO/SNC activists, which is necessary for every large institution working with students, where you can get information about upcoming competitions, events and share your own, as well as easily get information about the activities of SNO circles to collect information about the work of SNO of the university.

The event «SNO Mentors» was held within the framework of the subsidy from the federal budget to educational organisations of higher education for the implementation of activities aimed at supporting student scientific communities.

The participants of the educational event «Mentors of Student Scientific Societies» received unforgettable impressions, a lot of new information, useful knowledge, skills, interesting ideas on the organisation of student scientific societies, exchanged contacts and outlined plans for further cooperation on the development of student scientific societies in universities. At the end of the work all participants were given certificates.