The focus was firmly on the future and on global connections at the official opening of the International Association of Science Parks and Areas of Innovation (IASP) conference at Moscow’s World Trade Centre on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev welcomes delegates to the IASP conference at Moscow's World Trade Centre. Photo: Sk.ru.
The conference, which brings together representatives of innovation centres from all over the world, is being held in Russia for the first time in its 33-year history, and has attracted a record number of more than 1,500 attendees from nearly 70 countries. They were welcomed to Moscow by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
“You, representatives of leading technoparks and investors, determine the current innovations sphere to a large extent, but the future belongs to our children,” Medvedev told the conference.
“The next generation of innovative entrepreneurs should be being formed now,” he said, noting that the Russian government has supported the development of children’s technoparks.
“We believe that the children who go there will soon make their own contribution to the formation of an innovative economy,” the prime minister said.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, also present to welcome delegates of the four-day conference to Moscow, likewise drew attention to the importance of inspiring a spirit of innovation in children as early as possible.
“The process of creating and bringing up innovators starts not only at universities, but in the schools of the capital,” said Sobyanin.
“About a year ago, a new programme was launched in Moscow for schoolchildren in cooperation with leading universities and leading enterprises, creating a new integrated system of school and professional education to help them acquire the primary skills in innovative and scientific work,” he said.
Education was also the focus of the keynote speech by Finnish entrepreneur Saku Tuominen, who presented his HundrED project, a non-profit initiative aimed at introducing entrepreneurial and thinking skills to schools to provide children with a modern and practical education.
“We want to create a global network of teachers and students who are not afraid of change, who are global from day one,” said Tuominen.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the city's economy increasingly depends on hi-tech innovation. Photo: Sk.ru
Going global is the main topic of the international conference, which is subtitled “The global mind: linking innovation communities for internationalisation, sustainability and growth.”
If children are international from the age of six, they might have a truly global mindset,” said Tuominen, under whose project schools in rural Finland are partnered with schools all over the world, including in India and in African countries.
Medvedev said he was glad to see partners representing leading science parks from 70 countries gather in Moscow for the conference, which has been co-organised by the Skolkovo Foundation.
“That geography attests to the fact that most of our tasks in the field of innovation are similar. That’s understood here, in the EU, in China and Brazil, in Saudi Arabia, in the U.S. - in very different countries,” he said, adding that it was important for Russia to communicate with its international partners.
Skolkovo Foundation president Victor Vekselberg told the conference participants that it was “important today as never before to feel that Russia is part of the global innovative community, and we want to develop our international connections in every way possible.
“Today it’s not possible to develop cutting-edge innovative products in isolation,” Vekselberg said, adding that he hoped the new ties forged at the conference would not end once delegates return to their various countries.
In a speech focusing on how entrepreneurship and innovation markets are changing around the world, Jerome Engel, the U.S. co-founder of Monitor Ventures, said the role of government is important.
“It’s the government that sets the context, the rule of law, protection of intellectual property, and the environment for transactions,” he said. “In many emerging economies, the government is also essential as a funder,” he said.
Russia has spent considerable resources on its own development institutions - including the Skolkovo Foundation - in recent years, and government representatives used the conference to outline the resulting progress.
“You have seen for yourselves that Moscow is a modern dynamic megapolis where hi tech is used and has entered the lives of Muscovites,” said Medvedev.
Skolkovo Foundation president Victor Vekselberg speaking at the conference. Photo: Sk.ru.
“In recent years, both at a municipal and federal level, a lot has been done to develop innovation. Today’s it’s hard to imagine a contemporary and diversified economy without new ideas, new technology and science, education and business - an economy based on intellectual work and scientific achievements,” said the prime minister. He cited the example of Skolkovo, which was set up in 2010 by Medvedev during his presidency.
“Skolkovo now has 1,500 participant [startups] from 65 regions of Russia. An important part of it is the construction of the biggest technopark in Europe that I think some of you had the chance to see yesterday,” he said, referring to the first day of the IASP conference that was hosted by Skolkovo.
“There is no shortage in Russia of talented people capable of coming up with ideas and projects with great potential,” said Medvedev. “They can do it on their knees in a garage at some stages, but the level of technology is constantly rising, and knowledge of various areas and specialist equipment is needed to make a real product, and not every startup can afford this on their own, so development institutes help with this,” he said.
In Moscow alone, 26 technoparks have been set up in the last few years, said Sobyanin, the city’s mayor.
“And if the first ones were created using state budget funding, now most are private initiatives,” he said.
“Moscow has a wide range of spaces: the planned tech valley at Moscow State University, the start of work on the Phystech technopark [an IT cluster set up by the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology], the huge Skolkovo greenfield project, and a large number of technoparks set up in depressed industrial zones that are turning into tech development hubs,” said Sobyanin.
About 36,000 people work in the city’s technoparks, said the mayor, “showing that they are not just a trendy amusement.”
More and more areas of Moscow’s economy depend on high-tech innovative development, according to Sobyanin.
“The city is one of the main users of these innovative products. I can’t imagine the management of Moscow without the innovative solutions made by the people and innovative platforms represented here today,” he said, citing technology used in the city’s healthcare and transport systems, among other areas.
“These are the best most modern methods of managing the city,” said the mayor.