Several thousand applications from young scientists from all over the country were submitted for grant competitions. According to the results of the Russian Science Foundation 2026 competition, 867 youth projects in the fields of physics, chemistry, mathematics, psychology and economics received support. Compared to last year, the number of supported new projects by young scientists at Southern Federal University has doubled.

Four SFedU projects received support in the competition of scientific groups led by young scientists.  The winners were the projects:

"Modeling of low-dimensional materials and development of biocompatible flexible electrodes for noninvasive registration of human biopotentials" (supervisor: Dmitry Chalin, Physics Faculty)

"Comprehensive interdisciplinary study of automatic and reflexive mechanisms of regulation of eating behavior and their contribution to the subjective well-being and health of youth" (supervisor: Ekaterina Denisova, Academy of Psychology and Educational Sciences)

"Economic policy of import conservation in the context of technological sovereignty" (supervisor: Sergey Tsygankov, Faculty of Economics)

"Winning the Russian Science Foundation competition is a recognition of the scientific school of the SFedU Faculty of Economics and the relevance of our research. Our team will apply the methodology of narrative and institutional economics, as well as quantitative analysis tools, to assess the effectiveness of import-saving policies to achieve technological sovereignty using the public procurement mechanism. We hope that the results of the project will be in demand by both the scientific community and will find application in the educational process," Sergey Tsygankov shared.

"Creation of a highly efficient anode catalytic material with a reduced iridium content for electrolyzers with a proton exchange membrane for producing high-purity hydrogen" (supervisor: Elizaveta Moguchikh, Faculty of Chemistry)

"The support of our research by the Russian Science Foundation confirms the relevance of the topic, which serves as excellent motivation. We are developing domestic catalysts for producing "green" hydrogen, which are as efficient as their foreign counterparts, but contain less iridium, which significantly reduces their cost. This is how we solve the problem of technological sovereignty by providing manufacturers with access to high-quality Russian components," said Elizaveta Moguchikh.

Eight more projects of SFedU scientists received support in the competition of initiative research of young scientists:

"Integral operators and new representations of solutions of fractional differential equations with numerical realization applied to spectral problems in mathematical physics" (supervisor: Murcia Lozano Lady Estefania, Russian Scientific Research Center)

"Modeling and geometric optimization of elastic properties of highly porous materials" (supervisor: Alexander Kornievsky, Institute of Mathematics, Mechanics and Computer Science)

"Determining the shape and orientation of the dark matter halo of the Milky Way by the curvature of the gas and stellar disk: from cosmological simulations to observational data" (supervisor: Roman Tkachenko, Research Institute of Physics)

"Modeling of SrTiO3 thin films on MgO and Si substrates by the method of molecular dynamics" (supervisor: Alexey Motseyko, Research Institute of Physics)

"The use of synchrotron methods for assessing the transformation and stabilization of heavy metals in the soils of coal-mining territories" (supervisor: Mikhail Kirichkov, Academy of Biology and Medicine)

"Social construction of the 'third career': professional self-realization and social inclusion after retirement in Russia" (supervisor: Alyona Cherevkova, Institute of Social and Regional Studies)

"Approaches to increasing the catalytic activity and stability of anode PtRu-containing electrocatalysts for fuel cells with a proton exchange membrane" (Head:Kirill Paperzh, Faculty of Chemistry)

"The Russian Science Foundation's support of my project is a significant step on the path of a scientist. Our project is dedicated to the creation of new electrocatalysts for fuel cells. I would like to note that the obtained PtRu-containing systems will have to exceed the available commercial imported analogues by at least 1.5 times in terms of stability and activity in the oxidation reactions of hydrogen, CO and methanol. We expect that the results of the research will become the basis for the development of a new generation of domestic materials and in the future will bring them closer to industrial applications," Kirill Paperzh said.

"Development of a technology for producing highly stable platinum-containing electrocatalysts on a composite carrier for the cathode of fuel cells with a proton exchange membrane" (supervisor: Angelina Pavlets, Faculty of Chemistry)

"The project is dedicated to the creation of highly stable electrocatalysts for fuel cells, the development of which is of key importance for hydrogen energy. In the next two years, we plan to develop new materials, study the mechanisms of their degradation, and try to bring the technology for producing an electrocatalyst to UGT4," Angelina Pavlets shared.

The Foundation's competitions are aimed at developing the scientific potential of young researchers and forming new research teams.