Everything you need to know about President Tech Award

We explain what the President Tech Award entails, who will judge startups, and how the award money will be distributed.

Where did everything start?

The President Tech Award competition made headlines in Uzbek media in February of this year. On February 15, 2023, the Cabinet of Ministers of Uzbekistan approved and signed the appropriate resolution.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the president of Uzbekistan, supported the initiative. The  prize fund was revealed at a gathering of the IT community at the Astrum IT Academy, ensuring that the young entrepreneurs' ideas will be encouraged.

What is the "President Tech Award"?

"President Tech Award" is a competition for the Best Startups title in digital technologies. The contest will be divided into main and special areas.

The main area will take place in the following categories:

1. Technologies based on artificial intelligence;

2. Digital technologies in the social sphere;

3. ICT and cybersecurity;

4. Entrepreneurship and fintech;

5. Computer and mobile games.

Hackathon Grand Prix will be the special area that stipulates creating a digital solution in 72 hours.

What was the motivation to start the contest?

To support youth activities in Uzbekistan, a variety of competitions have been and are taking place. mGovAward, one of the major contests in this regard, with prize pool that has never exceeded $100 000, encouraged students to develop mobile applications in public services. The competition became a prerequisite for the launch of a new one.

For reference:

mGovAward was supported by the Ministry of Digital Technologies of Uzbekistan in cooperation with the Ministry of Government Affairs of the United Arab Emirates. The first mGovAward competition took place in 2019-2020, the second wave was launched in 2021, and the project came to an end in 2022. It was the mGovAward that was taken as the basis for the “President Tech Award”, with the only difference that the first one took place among students and aimed at developing mobile applications for the state.

During the two waves of the program, over 10 000 girls and guys, 92 universities and schools throughout Uzbekistan took part in the mGovAward.

A community of mobile developers was launched because of this contest, where participants consulted with each other, exchanged opinions and shared insights. The winners of the project are already integrating their solutions into government bodies, and the startup Don’t Waste ranked 2nd in the Best Global M-Gov Award, organized by the UAE government as part of the World Summit of Governments where the President of Egypt himself handed over the award!

The "President Tech Award" was carefully thought out at every level, using the mGovAward and other international contests as models.

Where can one follow the stages of the competition?

To ensure transparency and openness of the competition, all stages will take place on a special portal - a website where all information about the contest will be posted. Participants will also interact with the initiators of the "President Tech Award" through this platform.

A special portal is a platform where everything is available. Here people will be able to gather in teams, choose their direction, and file an application. The project can be finalized and the application can be sent again, but only until a certain time. Through a unique platform, information regarding moving on to the next step or failing it will also be given. One register on the portal through OneID.

How projects are evaluated?

The winners of the main areas of the competition will be determined by public voting, and independent company will determine the winners of the hackathon (special area).

An independent company?!

Yes. The entire evaluation process will be handled by a special independent company, which will be selected through a tender. Future judging company should have extensive experience working with startups, venture funds, business development, technical part, especially IT. It will involve experts and specialists from various fields related to the startup industry, and will ensure that the commission evaluates projects fairly. Voting will also take place on the portal.

The first stage will proceed online, without the participation of the teams themselves, only on the basis of completed applications. In each main area, 10 best projects will be determined.

In total, 50 projects will go to the next stage, Demo Day, where teams will pitch their projects to experts offline for several days. Hackathon (72-hour challenge where participants will have to develop a product to solve a problem) will take place during the demo day. By the way, contestants are allowed to participate in one of the main areas and the hackathon at the same time.

Who gets what?

According to the document, the competition will be divided into main and special areas, with $1 million total prize pool.

There will be only one winning team in the hackathon, which will immediately receive a cash prize of $100,000.

For each category of the main area, the prize fund will be distributed as follows: 1st rank — $100,000; 2nd rank — $50,000; 3rd rank — $30,000.

The process will take longer when it comes to the main areas. All teams will first receive 50% of the announced prize pool. After that, the KPI system will be introduced, based on its results the 2nd and 3rd tranches will be issued in the amount of 25% that will be paid within a year. If the team does not achieve certain results and does not show its growth, subsequent tranches will not be paid, since the competition is aimed at the implementation of projects, which means that it is the projects and their implementation that will be funded.

What has already been accomplished and what will follow?

Work has begun to entice an impartial, international company to assess proposals. The development of a unique platform, which will be accessible under the domain awards.gov.uz, is close to completion. The platform is expected to become public at the end of April.

Applications for the “President Tech Award” will start on May 1st and will end on July 1st. Applications will go through preliminary selection from 1 to 25 July. Further, online evaluation of selected projects will take place from September 5 to October 5, offline evaluation (Demo Day, from November 5 to November 10), and lastly, determining and awarding of winners on November 20 to December 25.

People under 30 are allowed to participate. Only citizens of Uzbekistan can take part in the main areas. Foreign citizens and stateless persons who are employees of IT Park resident companies can also participate in hackathon (special area).