Millennium Innovation Competition is held by the Millennium Challenge Account-Georgia with the financial support of the US Embassy and in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia and the Innovation and Technology Agency. The purpose of the project is to enhance the interest and motivation of secondary school pupils towards natural sciences, technologies and engineering. The competition promotes new achievements in the field of innovations and technologies in the country.  The winner team will participate in the NASA teaching program at the Houston Space Center.

The event for announcement of the innovations competition of the 2017-2018 academic years, started with the exhibition of innovative projects of the last year competition finalists. At the beginning of the event, the participants were welcomed by Mikheil Chkhenkeli, Minister of Education and Science of Georgia, US Ambassador to Georgia Ian C. Kelly, Magda Magradze, CEO of Millennium Challenge Account and Giorgi Zviadadze, Chairman of the Agency of Innovations and Technologies of Georgia.

“For young people it is a unique opportunity to improve and develop innovative ideas and inventions; to get in touch with scientists and entrepreneurs in order to share knowledge and experience for the purpose of future collaboration. I believe that competition of this year will acquaint us with a lot of interesting young people. I wish successful and productive working process to the participant. As for the winners, participation in the study program of NASA, in the Houston Space Center, will be unforgettable experiences of life,” said Mikheil Chkhenkeli.

The Millennium Innovation Competition was successfully conducted already for three times in 2014-2017 years and 227 teams from nine regions of Georgia participated in it.  In 2015 and 2016 years, the winner teams, ”Multiklimatizatori” (Akhaltsikhe) and ”Solari” (Tbilisi) took part in the Innovation Summit of the Konrad Foundation, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, USA. In 2017, the team of eighth grade pupils “Smart Kids” from St. Aleksi Shushania Gymnasium of Senaki took part in the training program of the NASA Cosmic Center University at Houston Space Center.