On 16 December, Center-invest Bank held the 8th annual award ceremony for the winners of the scholarship competition run by the bank and the Endowment Fund for Education and Science in the Southern Federal District. The 250 top students from southern Russia’s leading higher education institutions were each awarded a scholarship of RUR20,000.

The institutions represented by the competition winners are: Southern Federal University, the National Economy Institute of Rostov State Economics University, Rostov State Medical University, Don State Technical University, Rostov State Construction University, and the North-Caucasus Academy of Public Administration.

As has become traditional, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Center-invest Bank, Dr. Vasily Vysokov, delivered a lecture for the students. This year, with a paper entitled «Sustainable Turnpike Road», Dr. Vysokov spoke about the bank’s experience of helping modernize southern Russia’s economy.

The competition winners were congratulated by the rectors of the universities and representatives of the Rostov Region government.

The competitive selection process was conducted by the Endowment Fund during 2011. This year, 1500 students entered the scholarship competition, 1.5 times more than in 2010. This year also saw an increase in the amount of interdisciplinary research, scientific work using advanced information technologies as part of international projects, and modern data processing methods. Center-invest Bank is confident that the students of today are set to become the main drivers of southern Russia’s social and economic development.

Center-invest Bank’s social and educational projects encompass everyone involved in educational and academic processes: teaching staff, students, schoolchildren and recent graduates.