Innovations: a view from Akademgorodok
Will the innovation itch become an innovation boom?
View from AkademgorodokIrina Samakhova, " <url>"
In this regard, according to the president, it is urgent to take "all the necessary management decisions both at the level of state corporations and at the level of small and medium-sized businesses."
But what kind of solutions are needed? Let's try to answer this question using the example of the Novosibirsk Scientific Center, where it would seem that all the components for the development of the "knowledge economy" are presented: diverse research institutes, a classical university, large industrial enterprises located nearby.
High-ranking Moscow guests of Akademgorodok, who are on duty interested in the "proc" of Russian science, usually visit the Exhibition Center of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where numerous applied developments of academic institutions are demonstrated. Most of the wonderful exhibits of this exhibition have a common destiny – they have not yet been implemented, that is, they are not in demand in practice. To the question "why?" Representatives of the Russian Academy of Sciences have a duty answer: "Because, apparently, there is no modern industry in Russia yet, and the one that exists does not need innovations." Potential investors and production workers have their own opinion on this: "The developments of academic scientists may be brilliant, but they are most often not brought to mind and not economically calculated. And nobody is interested in buying a pig in a poke."
To overcome this obviously stalemate, four years ago a state decision was made to create a technopark in Novosibirsk Akademgorodok. Its founders were the administration of the Novosibirsk Region, SB RAS and the Mayor's Office of Novosibirsk. Then endless word discussions and coordination began, which resulted only in another masterpiece of the local KVN team: "Tehnopaak is actually not a noun, but a new foreign verb that means "talking a lot, doing nothing, sawing loot." At this stage, the general investor, tired of fighting with windmills, left the project, and potential residents of the technopark were offered to build independently on a new site – the only extensive swamp in the vicinity of Akademgorodok…
Meanwhile, if we talk not about the sign on the doors of the institution, but about the essence of the matter, the technopark in Novosibirsk has existed for a long time – you just need to look around with an open mind. And then, behind the usual image of Akademgorodok, another, so far little-known reality is revealed, similar to the beginnings of a real innovation complex.
It is impossible to name the exact number of private high-tech companies established in Akademgorodok over the past twenty years, because they grow "from below", often do not advertise themselves, and sometimes they do not live very long because of harsh market realities. But those who managed to survive and get stronger are developing quite successfully, carrying out a full innovation cycle – from an idea to a product. Moreover, they do it at their own expense and through the efforts of their own qualified managers – that is, without any help from the state.
The high-tech companies of Akademgorodok gradually realize common interests and unite in associations. Today there are two of them – Sibakademinnovation and Sibakademsoft.
Programmers are a separate article. As for the "Sibakademinnovation", which unites mainly "instrument makers" and biotechnologists, the total annual turnover of about sixty member firms of the association reached 5 billion rubles in 2007. This sector of the economy shows the highest growth rates in Novosibirsk. The high-tech products produced are in demand in Russia and abroad. For example, one of the firms of Akademgorodok supplies the largest universities in the USA with laser systems for the so-called "optical braking of atoms", which is a basic condition for the development of nanotechnology. Paradoxically, this successful company, like most local high–tech firms, cannot claim the support of Rosnanotech, because it does not fit into the format adopted there in terms of potential production volumes - at least 250 million rubles a year. And why not support a dozen existing small companies instead of one future large production, about which it is still unclear whether it will turn out or not? After all, a total of 5 billion rubles "here and now" is better than 250 million later – or do I not understand something?
"Sibakademinnovation" is gradually becoming a noticeable organizational and political force, with which the power structures begin to reckon. It is a pity that in the case of the Novosibirsk technopark, no one asked the innovators what, in their opinion, should be done to support them. But still, as they say, not the evening.
One of the leaders of the Sibakademinnovation, Andrey Bryzgalov, has quite a revolutionary proposal to statesmen concerned about the problem of developing an innovative economy in the country: not to be limited to the practice of state support for individual projects, but to move to creating an infrastructure capable of generating innovative businesses in unlimited numbers:
"Hopes for the innovative development of the Russian Federation are mistakenly, in our opinion, associated exclusively with the activities of the Russian Academy of Sciences, while the original vocation of the Academy of Sciences is the development of new knowledge about nature, and not the production of final high–tech products."
The global technological breakthroughs of the late twentieth century – the personal computer, the Internet, cellular communications – strictly speaking, were not derivatives of the latest scientific discoveries. When they were created, quite routine knowledge at that time was used, as set out in textbooks. Breakthrough technologies were created not in scientific laboratories, but in the environment of innovative business, through the work of small creative teams.
Abroad, this kind of environment is naturally formed around universities, some of whose graduates strive to apply their knowledge as soon as possible and implement their original ideas in hardware, be it devices or technologies. Successful ideas bring good income, firms grow and become customers for universities – in terms of targeted training and conducting the necessary scientific research.
Some semblance of such relations can be observed in Novosibirsk Akademgorodok. Dozens of private innovative enterprises have been formed here in recent years in an initiative way. The managers and employees of these firms are mostly graduates of Novosibirsk State University. But almost none of them teach at NSU, and only some firms serve as a base of practice for university students. The university is even further from ordering research from innovative companies.
This situation in Novosibirsk Akademgorodok is due to the fact that NSU is historically and formally closely linked with the SB RAS, although currently only a small proportion of university graduates go to work in local scientific institutes. The university conducts a very limited number of independent studies, since it is believed that there is no need for the university to duplicate the activities of the Academy of Sciences. All NSU students from the initial courses are required to practice in the laboratories of the SB RAS, where, in theory, young people should acquire the skills of independent research work. In fact, a significant part of academic laboratories is a safe haven for pensioners, where it is impossible to learn anything. It is significant that the most capable graduates of NSU, aimed at a research career, leave en masse to complete their education and work in the West.
As already mentioned, young people with a practical streak find application in innovative business. Unfortunately, it has limits of growth in Akademgorodok, since the SB RAS reigns supreme in this territory. The relations with this institution of the innovation complex are rather strained, since private firms were created independently of the leadership of the Academy, and it cannot account for their activities.
In the academic environment, "these inventors" have always been treated with slight contempt. This attitude is now not openly declared, but it persists in the mentality of the leadership of the Russian Academy of Sciences: it is believed that people with entrepreneurial talent bring an unnecessary "spirit of profit" to the scientific environment. That is why technoparks under the auspices of the Russian Academy of Sciences are a vain idea.
For the real formation of an innovative economy in the Russian Federation, it is necessary to change the object of state attention. In fact, a full–fledged innovation complex is being formed in Novosibirsk Akademgorodok "from below" - it should become an object of state support, in exchange for guarantees of explosive growth of the "knowledge economy".
According to the general opinion of the heads of innovative companies, the innovative business of Akademgorodok needs its own infrastructure:
1. Spatial infrastructure:Until now, the vast majority of local firms are huddled in areas rented from the SB RAS, having no prospects for development.
Innovative companies are deprived of the opportunity to build their own buildings and housing for employees, since the entire surrounding area is managed by SB RAS. Recently, there has been a solution to this issue in the form of a proposal to build independently on municipal land allocated for a new version of the Technopark. In today's harsh conditions, innovators cannot master this task without access to preferential loans. Another solution to the issue is the redistribution of obvious excess areas of the SB RAS in favor of innovative companies, by leasing with the right to buy;
2. Production infrastructure:Currently, all innovative enterprises producing various kinds of devices face great difficulties in creating experimental samples.
It is not economically rational to maintain your own full fleet of production equipment, and placing single orders at large enterprises is a hopeless matter. The problem is that the management structure of large factories with sufficient technological capabilities is built based on the production of series, and is not able to produce one-time products and parts in a reasonable time at real prices.
The way out is to create a network of small private specialized enterprises, each of which takes over only a part of the production cycle – metalworking, surface protection, casting of plastic parts, etc. Such mini-enterprises should be equipped with the most modern, high-performance (and, by the way, highly liquid) equipment. This model is the basis of the innovative part of the economy of developed countries. Sufficient efficiency of such enterprises, in addition to technology, relies on qualified management. The state's assistance here may consist in supporting the subprogram "Production structure for an innovative economy" with the involvement of various investment funds, as well as in creating conditions for attracting and training managers;
3. Staffing of small and medium-sized innovative businesses:The need of innovative enterprises for qualified personnel can be ensured through the participation of innovators in the educational process – in the formation of curricula, planning training practices and internships, reading special courses, etc. It is not only about the training of research engineers, the most urgent task is to train innovative managers from among young people educated in the exact sciences.
It seems unrealistic to quickly reorient the entire Novosibirsk University to such relations with business, but one of the faculties – physics – is quite ready to cooperate with the innovative complex of Akademgorodok. NSU is currently fighting for the status of a research university, but as an alternative, we can offer the position of a Federal Innovation University, which does not exclude the emphasis on independent research work at all;
4. Research support:The innovative business hopes to be able to order the necessary research to the university.
To do this, first of all, the physics faculty of NSU should develop its own research base, on which it will be possible to create temporary research teams. Only then will the relationship between science and practice rise from head to foot, and students will gain experience in solving urgent problems independently.
It is proposed to combine all these measures into the target program "Novosibirsk Technological Breakthrough". It will not require exorbitant government costs and will be able to ensure explosive growth of innovative production in a short time. On one condition: the program should not "hang in the air", as it often happens with good beginnings in Russia. It follows from experience that only those big ideas are successfully implemented, for the implementation of which special structures are created. This may be the Novosibirsk branch of the same Rosnanotech or the already mentioned federal university. The main thing is that the task of this structure should be the growth of innovative production in the subordinate territory.
I would like to add that the proposed "attempt" on the monopoly of the SB RAS in Akademgorodok will only benefit the Academy of Sciences, which objectively needs a life-giving competition. The authors of really useful developments, who are currently languishing in scientific laboratories, will be able to move to the private innovation sector and try to implement their ideas, and the researchers remaining in the institutes of the SB RAS will receive better working conditions.
Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru13.11.2008