A ceremony to start construction works of the very first Skolkovo’s corporative laboratory and R&D center was held on Thursday, August 2, 2012. The Renova Group is the builder, which will erect for itself a multi-functional R&D center, called "The Renova Lab". At the laboratory complex they plan to work on prototyping of innovative products as well as conduct research in biomedicine, chemistry, engineering, and other priority areas for the company. As the Foundation’s city-manager Viktor Maslakov said to Sk.ru, there was a special place selected for the laboratory, which will be located on about 20,000 square meters of the innovation city land and will consist of a set of five – to three-floored buildings.
"We have come to a deeper understanding that we need some so-called "heavy laboratories", where research can be conducted using large electrical loads, for example, or gas for heating, etc.," Maslakov said. "And it is in fact a very capital-and material-intensive construction,” the city-manager said. For this type of projects the Foundation, as Maslakov noted, has picked some alocated form the core of the city areas, which will not affect Skolkovo’s ecosystem. “They will allow conduct tests without disturbing life of the rest of the innovation city," he said. The NAVI Capital Management investment fund, which cooperates with Renova’s pool of strategic investors, has announced that it will invest up to 2 billion rubles ($62.5 million) into the lab's construction. The complex "Renova Lab" will be divided into three technological areas, where up to 600 employees will work, and the overall operating budget for 2013-2015 will be at not less than 3 billion rubles ($ 93.8 million).
As Viktor Maslakov said, there will be a Sberbank’s data center built next to the complex, and the Technopark’s complex of buildings will start from there as well. "There will also be two underground electric power substations built by the Federal Grid Company,” Maslakov said. "And there will be a unique building, an analog of which you can find only in Japan built,” the city manager said. An office building will be erected on top of an electric power substation, which will save some land for other innovation city areas.
Alexander Chernov, Skolkovo’s vice president, said the first R&D center is a significant event, as its about important for the national economy company. And by the year end, according to Alexander Chernov, there will be "around fifteen of such construction startups at Skolkovo". "Events and ceremonies of this kind will gradually become usual, I’d say even "routine" for Skolkovo, and more convincing evidence that the project is taking pace is really difficult to find," Alexander Chernov said.
Mikhail Livshits, director of development of high-tech assets with the Renova Group, said that "everything, which happens around construction of R&D centers, and all science centers, which will appear here, is directly related to core business of the company." As Lifshits also said, the R&D center at Skolkovo will research coatings, including anti-friction coatings, chemical products for machinery and will conduct other researches. "There will be big scientific stories there," he said. In addition, as Mikhail Lifshits also pointed out, "Renova's Swiss colleagues from engineering group Sulzer (Renova owns a controlling stake of this company) will also take to the Renova Lab part of their R&D activities.
Sergei Levkin, head of Moscow City Hall urban planning department, who attended the ceremony, stressed importance of Skolkovo for the capital. "It means that Moscow is developing its territory, and it's not just about buildings: innovative solutions, which will be implemented here, can serve as an example, and not only for Moscow," Levkin said. The head of the department of the urban planning policy also said that the city will continue to compare the performance, price and other parameters of Skolkovo’s buildings to evaluate their potential use in other projects. "For me as an engineer and a city planner its all very important," he said. He also noted that Skolkovo turned into a catalyst for a number of other infrastructure projects in the Moscow metropolitan area. "The Russian Railways (RZD) start catching up to set railroads from two sides: from Kiev and Smolensk, expanding existing hubs," he said. Additionally, as Levkin said, there will be expansion of Kutuzovsky avenue, from the Garden Ring to MKAD. And then, as he said, Moscow is planning to improve MKAD – Mozhayskoye highway joint (leads to Skolkovo area). And the Moscow region authorities together with the Federal road agency (Rosavtodor) will be working on improving the Odintsovo area (next to Skolkovo) road infrastructure. There will also be the "M1" highway improvements (heads towards Smolensk), from MKAD - to Moscow region, about five kilometers. The Skolkovo project, as Levkin said, also provided additional incentives for the development of engineering infrastructure, and Moscow is ready to render its support with it. "We have additional capacity of heating and water supply, and we have an opportunity to render part of this capacity to this territory,” the head of the urban planning policy department of the of the Moscow government said.