Tomorrow begins today: the National Centre RUSSIA announces the launch of the new season of the "Dreams of the Future" contest

The National Centre RUSSIA has announced the launch of Season 2 of the All-Russian video essay contest "Dreams of the Future". Registration for participating teams will take place from 26 February to 3 April. The aim of the project is to foster young people’s interest in the work of science fiction writers and to engage them in research, creative and innovative activities.

Teams from the regions of Russia consisting of three members are invited to take part in the junior (12–15 years old) and senior (16–18 years old) age categories. They will be required to prepare a video on one of the proposed themes: "Science Unites", "Technology and Nature", "The Future Is Built Today", and "Space". One of the key conditions is the inclusion of content generated by artificial intelligence as well as live footage featuring all members of the team. The running time of the video must be between one and three minutes.

For additional inspiration, participants are encouraged to explore literary works, films and games based on science fiction. A reference to works from the recommended list will earn the team an additional point. Following team registration, submissions will be accepted until 17 April inclusive.

The team’s video essay must be published on a VKontakte social media account, and a link to the video must be uploaded to the personal account on the official contest website. All entries will undergo moderation before being forwarded to the expert jury for evaluation. To complete registration successfully on the contest website, teams must indicate the constituent entity of the Russian Federation, the team’s age category and the contact details of the curator.

On 7 June, an awards ceremony will be held at the National Centre RUSSIA. Winners and prize-winners will receive valuable prizes, and all participants will be sent electronic certificates. Each team member will receive the following prizes: first place — a laptop, second place — a tablet, and third place — a smartphone. A special prize from the Director General of the National Centre RUSSIA, Natalia Virtuozova, is a trip to one of the branches of the National Centre RUSSIA for all members of the team.

In 2025, 792 teams took part in the All-Russian contest "Dreams of the Future". This amounted to 4,000 participants from 89 regions of the country. Twenty teams became finalists of the first contest "Dreams of the Future".

The All-Russian video essay contest "Dreams of the Future" is one of the vectors of the global Open Dialogue ecosystem aimed at engaging with the younger generation. The contest continues efforts to revive public interest in designing the future, which were launched at the International Symposium "Inventing the Future".

The contest is held within the framework of the Decade of Science and Technology with the support of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, the Russian State Library for Young Adults, the Council for Science Fiction and Adventure Literature of the Union of Writers of Russia, the Russian public-and-state movement of children and youth Movement of the First, the VCIOM Analytical Centre, the Coordinating Council for Youth Affairs in Scientific and Educational Spheres, the National Open Championship of Creative Competencies ArtMasters, the Association of Technology Club Participants, the ANO "Innovative Centre for the Development and Education of Children and Youth", the Skolkovo Foundation, the All-Russian project TopBLOG, the ANO "Development of Artificial Intelligence Technologies", the Eksmo-AST Publishing Group, the reading media outlet YOUF, the Hedgehog Academy of Modern Professions, and the federal chain of bookshops Chitai-Gorod.