Samarkand International University of Technology, established by Saneg, has been honored with the prestigious “Most Innovative University of the Year” award at the annual “Science and Innovation Awards 2025” festival.

The festival, held under the auspices of the international scientific journal Science & Innovation, serves as a premier platform for leading scientists, higher education institutions, and research centers that contribute significantly to the nation’s scientific advancement. The award ceremony, which took place on December 20, 2025, at the “Turkiston” Palace of Arts in Tashkent, stood as a landmark event in Uzbekistan’s science, education, and innovation landscape for the year.

The “Science and Innovation Awards 2025” was attended by high-ranking government officials, university rectors, academicians, distinguished professors, heads of research institutes, and Mass Media. The event’s comprehensive program featured presentations of scientific encyclopedias, specialized exhibitions by educational and research institutions, and a curated cultural program.

In accordance with the festival’s regulations, all participating universities in this category were evaluated based on 18 rigorous criteria, with each metric carrying a weight of 2 to 10 points (for a maximum score of 100). Following an exhaustive expert appraisal, SIUT secured the highest cumulative score, demonstrating exemplary performance across all established indicators.

For SIUT, this victory is the logical culmination of sustained growth and the systematic dedication of the entire university community. At the core of the SIUT development model lies a practice-oriented pedagogical approach, the integration of innovative methodologies — most notably the implementation of the dual education system across all academic programs — and the proactive involvement of students in scientific inquiry. This strategic framework has yielded significant student achievements at international forums, conferences, hackathons, and engineering summer/winter schools, thereby validating an educational standard aligned with global engineering benchmarks and enriched by the expertise of international faculty with profound scientific backgrounds.

The university’s contribution to scientific publishing merits particular distinction. Notably, the textbook “Chemistry of Oil and Gas Processing”, authored by SIUT Vice-Rector for Science and Innovation, Professor Tulkun Samukov, was recognized among the Top 10 scientific publications of the year by Science & Innovation. Furthermore, the university library plays a pivotal role in fortifying SIUT’s research capacity by providing faculty and students with seamless access to premier international scientific databases, including Web of Science, Springer, EBSCO, ProQuest, ACM Digital Library, Britannica Academic, and MSP, among others. These resources cultivate an environment conducive to high-impact research and facilitate the integration of SIUT into the global academic community.

“This award is a resounding testament to the tireless efforts of our university community and the efficacy of our chosen strategic trajectory,” emphasized SIUT Rector, Professor Yusuf Abdullaev. “The high acclaim received at the year’s principal scientific festival inspires us to scale new professional heights and launch even more ambitious educational and innovative initiatives in fulfillment of our critical mission: training the next generation of engineers and technologists, the builders of the New Uzbekistan.”

The title of “Most Innovative University of the Year” reaffirms SIUT’s burgeoning prestige among the leading scientific and educational institutions of Uzbekistan and solidifies its standing within the international academic sphere. This recognition reflects the university’s systematic commitment to science and innovation, as well as the societal and industrial relevance of its projects, designed to meet the complex challenges of contemporary engineering education.