The first annual all-Russian innovations meeting, focusing on regional development, began at the Skolkovo Hypercube on Wednesday, signaling the start of a huge drive to kick-start the high-tech startup industry across the country.
Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich at the Hypercube on Wednesday. Photo: sk.ru
The day-long event, named the “All-Russian Meeting on Russia’s Innovations Policy and Regional Development,” was headlined by Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich and carried the theme “Innovating in the New Economic Reality.”
"Our priority is not to extinguish any fires, but to realize the economic potential on the basis of innovations," Dvorkovich said.
Governors and deputies from 79 of Russia’s 83 regions were in attendance to hear how Skolkovo can help incubate and accelerate startup businesses - and thereby create hotspots of innovation all over the country.
Vasily Belov, Skolkovo’s senior vice president for innovations, gave a run-down of the services and support mechanisms that Skolkovo offers to startups including grants, patent supports and the physical ecosystem – the Skolkovo Innovation Center.
Ekaterina Inozemtseva, the foundation’s strategy director, then advertised the 2015 Russian Startup Tour and the Startup Village, the country’s biggest events of the year to find and accelerate the best innovations across Russia.
“We really need your help in attracting startups to these events,” Inozemtseva told the regional officials. The Russian Startup Tour starts February 3 in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don and culminates in the Startup Village at the Skolkovo Innovation Center in June. “This is incredibly important for the companies.”
The importance of reversing the brain drain to the innovation process was then driven home by Alexei Sitnikov, vice president of the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology.
“We want to keep talented students in Russia, … and we want to integrate into the world innovations process,” Sitnikov said.
Skoltech was created in 2011 in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and features a world-class faculty, with over half of current students already attempting to commercialize their innovations.
A plenary session on innovating in the new economic reality was to feature a welcome speech from Dvorkovich and Victor Vekselberg, the president of the Skolkovo Foundation.
Two panel discussions on regional development follow lunch: the first on attracting investment and modernizing industry; the second on creating effective innovative infrastructure.
The phrase “new economic reality” is a reference to Russia’s strained economy due to the fall of the ruble and sanctions imposed by the west over the conflict in Ukraine.
In spite of the troubles, Skolkovo’s projects have continued to blossom, due in part to recognition on both sides that scientific knowledge-sharing and investment in innovations are beyond politics.
They have also, however, driven home the importance of creating an innovations economy to help mitigate the effects of external shocks such as oil price fluctuations on Russia, which, as its leaders acknowledge, is still too reliant on its oil and natural gas reserves.