Adyghe State University to Receive Approximately 400 Million Rubles in 2026 for Development Program Implementation

The funds will be allocated by the Russian Ministry of Education and Science as part of the Priority 2030 program, of which Adyghe State University has been a participant since 2021. Based on the results of its 2025 program, the university significantly improved its position in the program's participant rankings and moved from the third to the second group of the main track. This will allow the university to receive a grant of approximately 400 million rubles in 2026 to implement its development program.

Priority 2030 is Russia's largest state program for university support, implemented since 2021. The program's initial goal was to establish over 100 potential centers for scientific, technological, and socioeconomic development in the regions by 2030. In 2024, Vladimir Putin ordered the program's funding extended until 2030, with its primary objective becoming "ensuring Russian universities' contribution to achieving Russia's national development goals and its technological leadership."

Every year, universities present their projects to the Council for Support of Universities' Development Programs participating in the Priority 2030 program. Over four days from November 18 to 21, the Russian Ministry of Education and Science, along with experts from the business and scientific communities, reviewed the universities' preliminary results for 2025.

According to the council's decision, 106 universities will receive funding under the program in 2026, with the total amount of state grants amounting to approximately 26.8 billion rubles. The program's main track includes 87 universities from 36 regions across the country, divided into three groups: the first group includes 13 universities, each of which will receive approximately 830 million rubles; the second group includes 22 universities, each of which will receive approximately 400 million rubles; and the third group includes 52 universities, each of which will receive up to 100 million rubles.

For the second time, the selection process was conducted under new rules. The results of the university's development program were assessed according to four criteria: the university's model, its strategic goals, and plans for achieving them; the university's team and leadership approach; the university's model's alignment with the country's technological development vector; and its compliance with the new personnel training system.

The ASU Development Program for 2025–2036 outlines strategic goals aimed at creating an ecosystem of innovation and expertise in which digital solutions based on mathematical modeling, data analysis, and computer vision become drivers of sustainable territorial development, the preservation of ethnocultural heritage, and the training of specialists capable of leadership in high-tech industries.

Universities could submit up to three strategic technology projects aimed at accelerating the implementation of research results in the real sector of the economy. 

Adyghe State University has submitted for consideration a strategic technology project, "Digital Assistant for Breeders," aimed at creating a domestic digital platform that automates breeding processes—from collecting phenotypic data to analyzing, forecasting, and digitally selecting mating pairs. The proposed algorithms and developed software allow for automatic calculation of parameters and classification of the studied objects based on photographs of seeds and leaves according to each of the approved characteristics.

The project partners included the Russian State Agrarian University – Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy, the N.I. Vavilov All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources, the I.T. Trubilin Kuban State Agrarian University, and the Rusid breeding and seed company.

The implementation of a digital breeder assistant will reduce the industry's dependence on foreign seeds and increase agricultural efficiency by streamlining processes, reducing the time it takes to obtain results, and, as a result, enabling the development of new varieties, including those resistant to climate change.