Russian Science Foundation has summed up the results of the 2024 competition of projects of individual research groups and the interdisciplinary projects competition held on behalf of the Russian President. As part of these contests, 546 projects were selected. The winning projects are to receive 12,5 billion roubles in 2024-2027.

Two research projects of Saratov State University will be supported by RSF based on the competition results in the priority area of the foundation activities, Conducting fundamental research and exploratory research by individual research groups.

The projects Highly efficient multifunctional biologics based on nanostructured polyelectrolyte systems for high-tech crop production (head – Chair of the Corporate Department of Polymers Anna Shipovskaya) and Trade relations of Lower Don Region in the 6^th-2^nd centuries BC (based on materials from amphora museum collections) (head – Chair of the Department of Ancient World History Sergei Monakhov).

The first project is aimed at solving an urgent scientific problem ‒ the development of highly effective biological products based on polyelectrolyte nanoparticles, whose agrobiological and agrochemical indicators are significantly higher than known commercial products. The practical significance of the project is the one-stage method for producing bionanoparticles – known methods are at least two-stage.

Such a biological product can stimulate the natural defence mechanisms of plants, improve the biological properties of the soil, and significantly reduce the number of synthetic growth stimulants and biological control agents used in agriculture. The drug will be promising for the introduction of modern crop production in agrotechnology and the modernisation of agronomic and phytosanitary technologies.

As part of the second project, the scientists will reconstruct the trade relations of Lower Don Region in the 6^th-2^nd centuries BC. The source of the study will be the amphora collections formed as a result of excavations of ancient monuments at Lower Don. A systematic approach to the source, clarifying the dating of individual objects by analysing ceramic complexes, as well as the breadth of museum collections will allow the scholars to comprehensively highlight the peculiarities of economic Greek-Barbarian relations in the region.

The researchers will replenish the publicly available database that has no world analogues and create the Catalogue-determinant of profile fragments of amphorae of the 6^th-2^nd centuries BC to facilitate and improve the quality of attribution of mass material during in-house processing.

More than 4,8 thousand applications were submitted for the competition of individual research groups. Of these, according to the results of the examination, the fund board approved 515 projects for financing, implemented in 2024-2026, with a possible extension of the project completion period by one or two years.