International Student Professional Creative Competition "Agricultural Sciences and Food"

The International Competition is held to integrate Ukraine into the world education space, expand international ties, identify and support the most talented students, and form a creative generation of scientifically active young people in agricultural science, who are competitive in the international labor market.

The Competition is open to all students with a bachelor’s / master’s degree of all higher education institutions, regardless of HEIs type and subordination.

Participants from one particular HEI may not submit more than five projects in each area.

One particular project cannot be submitted by more than two authors and two supervisors.

During the Competition, the processing of personal data is carried out in accordance with the requirements of the Law of Ukraine “On Personal Data Protection” dated 01.06.2010 №2297-VI (as amended).

REGULATIONS

of the International Student Professional Creative Competition

«Agricultural Sciences and Food»

General provisions

1.1. The International Student Professional Creative Competition “Agricultural Sciences and Food” (hereinafter – the Competition) is held to integrate Ukraine into the world’s educational space, expand international ties, identify and support the most talented students, form a creative generation of young scientists in agricultural science to becompetitive in the international labor market.

1.2. The regulations are made in accordance with the Regulations on student professional creative competitions, tournaments, approved by the Order of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine dated 27.09.2016 № 1150.

1.3. The Regulations determine the procedure for organizing and conducting the Competition, its tasks, requirements for projects, submission and consideration of appeals, determination and awarding of winners, and financing of the Competition.

1.4. The Competition is held under the aegis «Pivdennyi» («Southern») Research and Training Consortium of research institutions, agricultural institutions of higher education and industrial enterprises of Ukraine, the Scientific Park MNAU «Agroperspective», the Educational Innovation Cluster «Agrotechnics», and the National Innovation Cluster «Rodiuchist’ Hruntiv» («Soil Fertility»), a co-founder of which is the Mykolaiv National Agrarian University.

1.5. The Competition is open to students of higher education institutions, regardless of ownership and subordination, who at the time of completion of the second stage of the Competition are students with a bachelor’s or master’s degree (hereinafter – participants).

1.6. The founder of the Competition is the Mykolaiv National Agrarian University (hereinafter – MNAU).

The co-organizers of the Competition are University of Opole (Republic of Poland), Charles Darwin University (Australis), University of Banja Luka (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Indian Institute of Technology (India), Kostanay University of Engineering and Economics named after M. Dulatov, Toraigyrov University (Republic of Kazakhstan), Tashkent State Agrarian University (Republic of Uzbekistan), and State Agrarian University of Moldova (Republic of Moldova).

The competition is held annually. The list of co-organizers of the Competition may be updated every year.

1.7. The coordination of the Competition is provided by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.

1.8. Organizational and methodological support of the Competition is provided by the State Scientific Institution “Institute for Modernization of the Content of Education” of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (hereinafter – SSI “IMCE”).

1.9. Control over the organization, implementation and compliance with the requirements of this Regulation shall be exercised by the Organizing Committee.

1.10. The competition is announced by the order of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, which states: the members of the organizing committee, the jury, terms and rules of the competition.

1.11. During the Competition, the processing of personal data is carried out in accordance with the requirements of the Law of Ukraine “On Personal Data Protection”.

1.12. Contestants are responsible for the accuracy of the information submitted to the jury and guarantee the authorship.

1.13. The relations of the founders of the Contest with its participants regarding the use of objects of copyright or related rights of the winners are regulated by normative legal acts adopted in accordance with the requirements of the Civil Code of Ukraine, the Law of Ukraine “On Copyright and Related Rights”. The jury maintains a register of projects in order to exclude the possibility of re-submitting them to the Competition.

1.15. The winners of the Competition are determined in the individual championship.

1.16. The documentation for the second stage of the Competition is stored at the Mykolayiv National Agrarian University for three years.

Tasks of the Competition

2.1. The main objectives of the Competition are:

to to help build a new generation of creative, young scientists and practitioners in various spheres of public life; ;

stimulate creative self-improvement of young students ;

popularize scientific achievements, technology and innovative technologies;

involvement of leading scientists, scientists, scientific and pedagogical workers, specialists, practitioners to actively work with gifted young students.

Procedure of the Competition

3.1. The competition is held in two stages:

Stage I – in higher education institutions,

Stage II – in MNAU.

Stage II of the Competition is held in two rounds:

– the first round – double “blind” review of projects;

– second round – final scientific-practical conference online.

3.2. The competition is held in the following areas:

– agronomy;

– technology of production and processing of livestock products;

– agroengineering.

3.3. Up to five projects in each area from one higher education institution can participate in the Competition. One project cannot have more than two authors and two leaders.

3.4. The Competition is attended by projects of students, made independently, submitted for the first time, with no plagiarism. Projects must be relevant, innovative or exploratory in nature within a specific area.

3.5. The role of the research supervisor of the project submitted to the Competition is purely advisory.

3.6. The languages of the Competition are Ukrainian and English.

At the first stage of the Competition, the project is implemented in Ukrainian and English. At the second stage of the Competition, the project and information about the author (s) and supervisor (s) are sent in English.

3.7. Requirements for the design of the project submitted to the Competition:

– the first page – the title page (it indicates only the name of the project, annotation – no more than 1500 characters and keywords – no more than 10 words); the main content of the project (from the second to the twenty-first page) consists of: I. Introduction, II. Analytical review of the literature, III. Object, subject and methods of research, IV. Project results, V. Conclusions, VI. References (references to sources in the text in the form of numbers in square brackets); – the text is printed in Times New Roman font, line spacing 1.5, size 14, A4 sheet, margins: left – 30 mm, right – 10 mm, top and bottom – 20 mm. The volume of the bound project should not exceed 20 pages without taking into account the appendices.

3.8. Information about the author (s) and supervisor (s) is made out in a separate document (Appendix 1), signed and sent separately in a scanned document.

3.9. The project is sent electronically by the main author personally after registration on the Competition website (see http://konkurs.mnau.edu.ua).

Copies of patents, scientific articles of the author, etc. (if available), drawings and illustrations arranged on an A3 or A4 sheet may be attached to the project.4

3.10. If the project is submitted in violation of the requirements of this section, it is returned to the author for revision within five days. The project is not sent for revision and is not allowed to participate in the Competition for the second time. The jury excludes such a project from the Competition and notifies the lead author within ten days of the project rejection. Each project that meets the requirements of this section receives a code that is communicated to the email address from which the project was sent.

3.11. To ensure the objectivity and anonymity of the surname, the initials of the author (s) and supervisor (s), as well as the name of the higher education institution are provided to the Jury after the first stage of the Competition.

3.12. Projects submitted to the Competition are not returned to the authors.

3.13. For the organization and holding of the first stage of the Competition in the institution of higher education by the order of the head, a competition commission is created, for consideration of which students submit their projects.

3.14. The Competition Commission for the first stage of the Competition selects no more than five projects in each area and sends them electronically to the MNAU in the manner and within the time specified in clauses 3 and 8 of the Regulations.

3.15. The jury of each direction appoints at least two reviewers of each project.

3.16. Projects participating in the second stage of the Competition are not submitted for review to higher education institutions where their authors study.

3.17. In case of double “blind” review of the project, the following criteria are taken into account:

– compliance of the project topic with the direction of the Competition;

– the urgency of the problem;

– the degree of novelty and originality of the ideas underlying the project, the use of modern research methods;

– completeness and quality of presentation of the main scientific results;

– theoretical significance of the project;

– practical significance of the project;

– design quality.

3.18. The jury from each direction (if at least 2/3 of the jury is available) on the basis of reviews and open discussion of projects by a majority vote (50% + 1 vote) decides in the first round to determine the finalists of the second stage of the Competition in each area. In the event of an equal number of votes of the members of the Jury, the vote of the Chairman of the Jury is decisive. The results of voting in the first round of the second stage of the Competition are recorded in the minutes signed by the chairman and secretary of the Jury.

3.19. At the meeting of the Organizing Committee of the Competition the results of voting of the Jury of all directions of the Competition are considered and the decision on approval of protocols of the Jury of the first round and appointment of the second round of the Competition is made by open voting.

3.20. Based on the results of the review, a rating list of projects is formed, which is published on the official website (http://konkurs.mnau.edu.ua).

3.21. If during the review of the project signs of academic plagiarism are found, the Jury separately considers this issue and its decision:

– confirms the fact of academic plagiarism and removes the project from the Competition with notification of the participant and the competition commission of the higher education institution;

– does not confirm the fact of academic plagiarism and allows the relevant project to further participate in the Competition.

3.22. The Organizing Committee sends invitations to the finalists of the Competition to participate in the second round of the Competition, which is held in the form of a final scientific-practical online conference no later than two weeks before the date of the Competition. In the second round of the Competition, the finalists will defend their project in front of the Jury online and answer questions.

3.23. Presentation requirements:

– the presentation is performed in PowerPoint;

– illustrative material of the project (drawings, diagrams, schemes, photos, graphic images) is made in the presentation;

– presentation volume no more than 20 slides.

3.24. Based on the results of the presentation and defense of the project, the Jury determines the winners by open voting by a simple majority of votes based on the presence of 2/3 of its members at this meeting.

3.25. The jury draws up a report on the Competition, including the protocol of the first round of the Competition on determining the finalists (Appendix 2), the protocol of the second round of the Competition on the distribution of diploma degrees (Appendix 3) and statistical information (Appendix 4).

3.26. Decisions on the results of the Competition (Appendix 5) and a report on the results of the competition are sent by the organizing committee to SSI”IMCE” within two weeks after their holding.

Competition Management

4.1. The organization and holding of the Competition is provided by the Organizing Committee.

4.2. The Organizing Committee includes representatives of the organizers (co-organizers) of the Competition, the Ministry of Education and Science, SSI “IMCE”, representatives of other institutions of higher education, research institutions, enterprises, public organizations, etc. (by agreement).

4.3. The Organizing Committee performs the following functions:

conducts organizational work on the preparation and conduct of the competition;

establishes relations with higher education institutions conducting the Competition in other countries, provides them with the necessary scientific and methodological assistance; commissions, as well as, if necessary, make changes to them;

approves together with the jury the final decision on the results of the competition;

prepares a report on the competition; and the results of the Competition.

4.4. The Jury consists of specialists, scientists and experts in the field of competition, scientific, scientific and pedagogical staff of higher education institutions, public organizations, etc. (by agreement).

The chairman of the jury and the secretary of the jury from each direction are elected from the jury.

The scientific-pedagogical employee of MNAU is appointed the chairman of the jury for each direction. The number of members of the jury in each direction should not exceed one third of the number of participants.

4.6. The number of representatives of MNAU in the jury in each direction may not exceed 30% of its approved composition.

4.7. The jury performs the following functions:

develops tasks, evaluation criteria, etc.,

evaluates projects, performances of participants;

determines the winners and recommends them for awards, draws up appropriate records.

Determining and awarding the winners of the Competition

5.1. The winners of the second stage of the competition are awarded by diplomas

I – III degrees in each area. Diplomas are signed by the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine.

5.2. Other participants are awarded by a certificate of participation.

The supervisors of winners and reviewers – are thanked for their conscientious work.

The ratio of the distribution of prizes:

– in each direction the prizes are not more than 25% of the total number of participants according to the rating;

– distribution by degrees: 20% – diplomas of I degree, 30% – diplomas

of II degree, 50% – diplomas of III degree;

– the ranking of finalists by degrees is determined as the sum of points for the first and second rounds of the Competition.

5.3. The results of the competition and the list of winners are approved by order of the Ministry of Education and Science.

5.4. The results of the Competition are posted on the web page of the competition (http://konkurs.mnau.edu.ua) after their approval by the order of the Ministry of Education and Science.

5.5. MNAU and co-organizers of the Competition can award students-winners of the Competition and their supervisors with valuable gifts and recommendations for publishing information about their projects in scientific publications founded by higher education institutions.

Appeal

6.1. An appeal commission is set up by the organizing committee to ensure the objective conduct of the Competition.

6.2. The Appeals Commission works throughout the competition part of the final stage and is present at the summing up.

6.3. The appeal commission may include representatives of the organizers (co-organizers) of the Competition, representatives of other institutions of higher education, research institutions, enterprises, public organizations, etc.

6.4. The number of members of the appeal commission is formed in accordance with the number of participants in the second stage of the Competition.

6.5. In case of disputes, participants have the right to submit an application in any form to the e-mail address of the Appeals Commission on the correctness and objectivity of the project evaluation and receive a response to summarize the final results of the Competition. In the application, the participant indicates the reason for the appeal.

6.6. The Appeals Commission within three working days from the date of receipt of the application makes a decision, which is recorded in the minutes of its meeting (Annex 6), and sends it to the e-mail address of the applicant-participant for review.

6.7. Interference of supervisors, parents of participants and other persons in the procedure of the Competition and consideration of appeals is prohibited.

6.8. The decision of the appeal commission is taken into account by the jury when summing up the final results of the Competition.

Financing of the Competition

7.1. Expenses for the organization and holding of the first stage of the Competition are carried out at the expense of higher education institutions from sources not prohibited by the current legislation of Ukraine.

7.2. Logistics of the second stage of the Competition, the cost of reviewing projects and holding final scientific and practical online conferences are carried out at the expense of MNAU and sources not prohibited by the legislation of Ukraine.