Moscow does not believe in innovation
Irina Reznik, "Newspaper.Ru»Following the federal authorities, the Moscow City Hall is developing its own urban innovation program.
Several structures are ready to lead the process of reviving applied science and the "innovative way of development" of the capital at once. So far, however, not all of them have fully figured out even the terminology.
On Tuesday, the Moscow government approved a targeted comprehensive program for the creation of an innovation system in Moscow for 2008-2010. According to the head of the Department of Science and Industrial Policy Yevgeny Panteleev, the project is aimed at modernizing the scientific, technical, educational and industrial spheres of the capital, creating a favorable investment climate to attract business funds to the innovative sphere of the city. "During the implementation of the program, it is planned to create at least three technoparks, two technology centers, and three collective use centers annually in Moscow. In 2008, a leasing center will be established to support innovation activities, and in 2009, an Innovation Support Fund," he said.
An ambitious task is being set for the next 2.5 years: to increase the share of the innovative industry sector of the city by more than 5 times – from 4% to 21%.
Among the priority areas identified are: medical equipment, energy and energy conservation, water treatment and water consumption, new building materials and technologies, IT technologies, bioengineering, environmentally friendly transport, high-rise construction. In these areas, it is promised "the maximum possible participation of the state in subsidizing scientists, specialists, inventors carrying out fundamental and exploratory research with an innovative orientation," as well as the formation of state and partner scientific funds for the development of innovations in industry. According to the program, inventors will be provided with up to 30 grants per year for 0.5-1 million rubles. In total, in the near future, the Moscow authorities are ready to spend about 8 billion rubles on innovations.
We must pay tribute to the city government: attempts to revive the national applied science and the development of high-tech industries in Moscow began to be undertaken earlier than this problem was taken care of at the federal level. And to date, the relevant programs are being implemented by the prefectures of urban districts and the Department of Support and Development of Small Business.
The next program has added only confusion so far.
"There is absolutely no connection with the programs of the districts within this program. Whereas the districts have accumulated experience and created infrastructure elements and innovative enterprises themselves," Nikolai Evtihiev, prefect of the VAO, said at the meeting. And according to the head of the Department of Support and Development of Small Business Mikhail Vyshegorodtsev, many of the measures proposed by the new program – training, compensation of the bank rate, subsidies to enterprises, including from the federal budget – are already being implemented within the framework of his department's program. "At the moment there are two venture programs for innovative small businesses," Vyshegorodtsev said. – The market is overheated, today there is more money for innovative projects than the projects themselves. We need to somehow divide the scope of activity so as not to duplicate each other. Let us do small business, and the Department of Science and Industrial Policy will do large business."
According to Vyshegorodtsev, today an entrepreneur, having not found understanding in one fund, goes with the same project to another, hoping that his proposal will be considered innovative there.
By the way, despite the active development and advertising of innovative programs, neither at the metropolitan nor at the federal level even the concept of "innovation" has yet been defined. The situation is no better with the criteria for evaluating innovative projects.
And from the new program, as well as from the previous ones, it is unclear what should be considered a specific "result of innovative activity" and what requirements are imposed on the "final product". Meanwhile, as Viktor Sadovnichy, Rector of Lomonosov Moscow State University, said at the meeting, the innovative program needs, first of all, serious expertise. "Each project should be promising and based on science, its economy should be calculated," the scientist believes. "Without an effective expert council, it will be easy to ruin the program."
However, as the participants of the meeting considered, the most verified Moscow program will rest on the limitations of federal legislation.
At the federal level, there is no law on territorial clusters, the creation of which is planned by the Moscow authorities, there are no tax incentives for enterprises engaged in innovative activities. Hinders the introduction of innovative ideas and the restriction of commercial activities of universities. "Scientific parks are being created at universities all over the world, this is one of the main building blocks in the foundation of innovative culture," Viktor Sadovnichy said. – Even if these are not large-scale productions, but in any case they are high-tech."
Most of all, according to Elena Panina, chairman of the Moscow Confederation of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, mandatory contests and bureaucratic document management harm the innovation environment. "In the year that it will take to hold the competition, the innovation will become obsolete," she said. – And for those 2 years, during which the re-equipment of production will be coordinated, it will lose all meaning altogether."
However, at the first stage of the implementation of the capital's innovation program, for which the Moscow authorities are given six months, it is planned to amend federal legislation. If this fails, the authors of the program honestly warn, it will develop according to the "pessimistic scenario" envisaged by them: the scientific and industrial complex will remain unloaded, and the domestic market will continue to be occupied by foreign products.
Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru29.05.2008