The Open Doors intellectual competition is held in three academic tracks: bachelor's, master's, and doctoral, as well as a research track for postdocs (for young foreign scientists). A total of nearly 214,000 people from 208 countries registered on the Open Doors website. 

More than 6,300 participants became winners and runners-up, receiving the right to apply for the Russian Federation Government's quota for education for foreign citizens. 

More than 600 participants became winners of the Open Doors in the bachelor's track, and more than 1,250 became runners-up. In the master's track, there were 1,850 and more than 2,600 people, respectively. Winners in the bachelor's, master's, and doctoral tracks will receive the right to study in Russia free of charge within the Russian Federation Government's quota for education for foreign citizens. Runners-up may receive the same right if there are places available within the quota that are not taken by winners.

The lists of Open Doors winners and runners-up in the bachelor's/master's tracks are published on the Subject area pages of the Open Doors website. Participants' personal results for all Subject areas in which they participated can be found in their personal accounts on the Open Doors website. 

To exercise the right to free education in Russia within the quota allocated by the Government of the Russian Federation, winners and runners-up must upload the required documents to their personal accounts. The document upload service will be open:

- for winners – from January 29 to February 12, 2026, 

- for runners-up – from February 2 to February 12, 2026.

Participants in the doctoral and post-doctoral tracks will proceed to the third stage of Open Doors, during which they will conduct online interviews with potential research supervisors (doctoral track) and heads of research projects of interest to them (post-doctoral track). The third stage will take place from January 12 to February 26, 2026. The results will be announced on February 30, 2026.

In addition, this year the Government of the Russian Federation decided to provide grant support to talented foreign citizens who have demonstrated outstanding abilities and wish to study at Russian universities in higher education programs (bachelor's, specialist, master's, and doctoral). 

Grant support is provided to recipients of Russian Federation government quotas for the education of foreign citizens and includes:

a) payment of transportation costs associated with arrival at the place of study in the Russian Federation and departure to the country of citizenship or permanent residence upon completion of studies;

b) a monthly cash payment;

c) the purchase of a voluntary medical insurance policy for the period of study;

d) compensation for accommodation costs during the period of study.

According to the rules of grant support, Open Doors winners and runners-up are eligible for it if they choose an educational program in Russian. 

Winners and runners-up of the Olympiad who wish to apply for grant support must select a Russian-language educational program in their personal account on the Open Doors website when applying for a Russian Federation government quota for the education of foreign citizens. 

To ensure the level of Russian language proficiency required for the chosen program, quota recipients will be given the opportunity to take Russian language courses (preparatory faculty) during a whole academic year. During their studies at the preparatory faculty, students will also receive the full amount of grant support described above.

The selection of educational programs offered by universities for study will be open to Open Doors winners and prize winners on January 29, 2026. 

IMPORTANT: choosing an educational program in Russian does NOT GUARANTEE receipt of grant support. 

The final decision on the allocation of grant support will be made by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation based on the results of processing the documents of winners and runners-up required to obtain a quota from the Government of the Russian Federation for the training of foreign citizens, and confirmation from the participant’s chosen university after the completion of Open Doors-2025. 

Information about the allocation of grant support will be sent to each recipient individually.