Abdrahmanova G.T.,
Doctor of Economics, Professor
СЕО of “AGT Global”

Nuraddinov N. M.
Project manager of “OPEN SPACE”

The High Technology Innovation Contest "OPEN SPACE" is a prototype and our foresight stage for the company in this direction, which annually determines the scientific theme of the contest based on the requests of investors and its own areas of scientific interest. The goal of the contest foresight, as one of the projects, is to shape the image of the scientific future in new and rapidly developing fields of high technology, and to identify frontier knowledge and solutions that could become the focus of research and support of the contest. The organizer of the High Technology Innovation Contest "OPEN SPACE" is AGT Global, with support from its partners in universities, industrial companies, and youth initiatives, as well as leading experts and researchers in areas defined by investor requests.
The idea of foresight in the format of our contest originated in 2019 and continues to evolve to this day; we are constantly improving our contest. If we look at the definition, Foresight represents a system of methods for expert evaluation of strategic directions for socio-economic and innovative development, identifying technological breakthroughs that can impact the economy and society in the medium and long term. The basis for assessing future scenarios is expert opinions. The Foresight methodology incorporates dozens of traditional and relatively new expert methods. At the same time, they are continuously refined, and techniques and procedures are elaborated, ensuring the enhancement of the justification for predicting the prospects of scientific, technological, and socio-economic development. The main vector of methodology development is aimed at the more active and targeted use of expert knowledge involved in the projects. Typically, a combination of various methods is applied in each foresight project, including expert panels, Delphi (two-stage expert surveys), SWOT analysis, brainstorming, scenario building, technological roadmaps, relevance trees, mutual influence analysis, etc. To account for all possible scenarios and obtain a complete picture, a significant number of experts are usually involved. For example, in Japan's long-term scientific and technological development forecasts, conducted every five years, more than 2,000 experts participate, representing all major areas of science, technology, and engineering development, while the latest Korean project involved over 10,000 experts.
Through communication with practitioners in the market, particularly in the industrial sector, we clearly understand that there are many relevant issues and no limit to perfection. This multitude of variations inspired me to adopt the Foresight concept and adapt it to our contest platform, based on investor and industrial sector requests. Foresight is not only focused on identifying potential alternatives but also on selecting the most preferable ones.
Our interest in scientific research related to high technologies is specifically oriented towards the selection of critical technologies, which can be used as criteria for achieving maximum economic growth, and in building technological productivity for the industrial sector – identifying potential market niches and selecting technologies that allow for the rapid development of competitive products for emerging markets. The choice of development strategy is made based on a sequence of broad expert consultations, allowing us to foresee the most unexpected paths and potential "pitfalls".
The format of our contest and R&D activities is somewhat based on Foresight principles. We found it appealing, as it includes many aspects that can be adapted to our innovation contest. Foresight proceeds from the assumption that achieving a "desirable" future largely depends on the actions taken today; therefore, the selection of scenarios is accompanied by the development of measures ensuring an optimal trajectory of innovation development.
Most Foresight projects include science and technology development perspectives as a central component. These issues become the subject of discussion not only for scientists but also for politicians, businessmen, and practitioners from various sectors of the economy. The result of such discussions is the emergence of new ideas related to improving science management mechanisms, integrating science, education, and industry, and, ultimately, increasing the competitiveness of a country, sector, or region. Moreover, the very organization of systematic attempts to "look into the future" leads to the formation of a higher culture of management and, eventually, to a more well-founded scientific, technical, and innovation policy.

Foresight projects are aimed not only at acquiring new knowledge in the form of reports but also at developing informal connections between participants, creating a unified understanding of the situation. In several projects, the formation of horizontal networks, platforms where scientists, businessmen, university professors, officials, and specialists from related fields can systematically discuss common problems, is considered one of the main outcomes. Foresight represents a much more complex approach compared to traditional forecasting.
First, forecasts are typically developed by a narrow circle of experts and are often associated with predictions of largely uncontrollable events (e.g., stock market prices, weather, sports results, etc.). Foresight, on the other hand, involves assessing potential prospects for innovation development related to scientific and technological progress, outlining potential technological horizons that can be achieved through specific investments and systematic work, as well as likely impacts on the economy and society.
Second, Foresight always involves the participation (often through intensive mutual discussions) of many experts from all fields related to the subject of a specific Foresight project, and sometimes includes surveys of specific groups of the population (e.g., regional residents, youth, etc.) who are directly interested in solving the problems discussed within the project.
Third, the key difference between Foresight and traditional forecasting is its focus on developing practical measures to approach the selected strategic goals.
Over the past 4 years, we have developed and implemented techniques and methods for our vision of the contest, using a variety of ideas. We started by identifying the most promising areas of industrial and high technology research, which will be the focus of the contest.
We aim to structure scientific research similarly and divide it into stages:

• Formation of a scientific team based on the direction requested by the investor company.
• Preparation of a scientific project and all necessary documents.
• Presentation of the team's scientific idea (presentation to mentors and experts).
• Presentation of the project or prototype (presentation to mentors and experts).
• Final defense of the scientific project's results and development plans at the contest's final (presentation to external experts).

For nine months, we conduct the competition and act as a scientific client, while the participants work on their projects according to the competition’s work plan and guidelines: defining objectives, selecting methodologies, processing data, making project adjustments, and creating prototypes. The young participants, specialists, and scientists are guided not only by their own ideas and scientific goals but also take into account the interests of society, business, and the state. The project manager leads the scientific group, combining the roles of researchers and managers.
The policy of the competition is to guide and build teams in which the project leader or participant has, on the one hand, expertise in the field of study, and on the other hand, understands how to coordinate a scientific team, secure research grants, and develop the scientific group.
The goal of the competition is to cultivate leadership competencies among young scientists that are essential for scientific team leaders. Participants, young scientists’ teams, and specialists can acquire new skills, competencies, and communication strategies throughout the competition. Our company’s goal through this competition is to share, guide, and demonstrate principles of working in high-risk areas, effective team and researcher management strategies, defining approaches for finding industrial partners and investors, and creating opportunities to implement their results for employment, project involvement, or continued research. It also opens doors for collaboration and publication in leading global journals.
The competition's outcomes provide participants with opportunities for:

• Developing skills that young specialists or scientists need to possess as Principal Investigators (PIs).
• Learning about scientific communication and building a personal brand as a researcher.
• Highlighting new names in science, research, and business.
• Promoting and scaling scientific projects by young specialists or researchers, demonstrating the importance and relevance of developing a researcher’s personal brand.
• Collaborating with scientific communicators, specialists, and leading scientists to promote their results, ideas, or scientific activities.
• Formatting and analyzing the scientometric and media profiles of researchers, as well as providing personalized recommendations from leading experts in the fields of science, PR, and media.
• Facilitating collaboration between scientists and PR mentors with companies.
• Presenting personal strategies for promoting science and researchers.
• Offering individual grants for implementing the best ideas throughout 2023.
• Developing the direction of new young scientific communicators.

The innovative competition "OPEN SPACE" announces its launch every year. We invite all technological, scientific geniuses, and creative thinkers from various fields to participate in this exciting contest. "OPEN SPACE" is a high-tech competition that brings together all the tools and directions at the intersection of which not only innovations are born and realized, but also talented visionaries who bring them to life! At the core of our event is the innovative platform "OPEN SPACE," whose role is to help shape, analyze, and select a pool of high-tech innovations—vendors, companies, and experts for each product in every INDUSTRY STORY.
Within the framework of the competition, we encourage participants to create innovative works/solutions capable of solving complex problems in various fields. Participants can use any technologies and materials to create their robots. The annual competition is particularly significant for investors and for our company, as we are looking for projects in the following areas: green technologies/construction, chemical engineering, metallurgy, robotics and manipulators, surveying, cybersecurity, mechanical engineering, mechatronics, as well as nanotechnologies. The competition's projects utilize a variety of technologies, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, computer vision, and many others. These technologies help improve the functionality of robots, making them more efficient at performing tasks.
Moreover, the development of all industries and scientific fields opens new perspectives for the future. The creation of more efficient and intelligent works and solutions can lead to an improved quality of life and the resolution of complex problems. Join the innovative "OPEN SPACE" competition and showcase your talents in your exciting field to the world!