On January 24, 2024, the NAS of Belarus hosted the republican schoolchildren’s conference The First Step into Science.

Academic Secretary of the Department of Humanities and Arts of the NAS Alexander Kovalenya addressed the young scientists with a welcoming speech. The forum was attended by more than 200 high school students, as well as their teachers and mentors from all regions of Belarus. The forum was held in this format for the first time. The event is organized by the Council of Young Scientists of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus.

At the plenary session, young scientists of the NAS of Belarus presented reports on promising areas of development of domestic and foreign science, good practices in scientific organizations. The sections of the conference were held on the basis of the organizations of the NAS of Belarus in Minsk: the Yakub Kolas Central Scientific Library, Institute of Experimental Botany, Institute of Physical and Organic Chemistry, Institute of History and the United Institute of Informatics Problems. The work was organized in ten sectional areas. Among them is the Space section, which appeared thanks to the support of the Space Research Agency of the NAS of Belarus.

The conference participants were able to get acquainted with the exhibition of scientific and technical developments of young scientists of the Academy of Sciences, visit the institutes of the Academy of Sciences.

The First Step into Science conference is held in order to find schoolchildren interested in scientific activities, to develop their skills in presenting experimental results, and to form image of modern achievements of Belarusian science among young researchers.