Ministry for Economics and Industry of the Tatarstan Republic held an awarding ceremony for winners of the republican contest "Best invention of the year 2002". All in all the contest received 64 applications protected by the Russian patents. Twenty of the exhibited inventions are already utilized in production processes. Another eighteen are at the stage of being introduced. "Nizhnekamskneftekhim" Inc presented four applications for the contest. In nomination "Chemistry and Petrochemistry", authors of the invention " Method to produce monoethylene glycol of fibrous purity" obtained the first prize of RUR 30 000. The invention of "Nizhnekamskneftekhim" Inc "Method to regenerate return solvent in synthetic rubber process" ranked third in the contest. The authors of these two inventions were awarded Certificates and Bonus.