Resuscitation of innovations
To save innovation
Yulia Dyukova, Computerworld Online
About 30 scientists living in the USA and Europe took part in the international forum "Days of Russian Innovations", held at the end of May by the Expert media holding. However, the organizers' attempts to provoke a controversy about whether young people should leave the country did not lead to results. Both the emigrated and the scientists who remained at home agreed that science has no nationality, and the question of place of residence should be decided individually.
For example, Professor of the German Institute of Applied Physics Sergey Demokritov asked young people to keep in mind that it is very difficult to build a career without friends and relatives, and in order to win competitions, you need to be head and shoulders above the locals. And the general director of the Moscow-based company "RTI, technologies, devices, materials" Evgeny Demikhov, who himself recently returned from many years of emigration to Germany, where he founded his first company, noted that it is pointless to start a high-tech business abroad without gaining experience in the domestic market. According to him, it is possible to start in the West only with significant capital, because employees will have to pay salaries according to European standards.
Denis Rebrikov, Director of Science at DNA Technology, a company that manufactures equipment for medical diagnostics, is confident that the high-tech business should not only start, but also continue in Russia, since it is difficult for foreigners to establish service and understand the specifics of Russian business. And according to Rebrikov, he has a lot of potential clients here, more than anywhere else.
That was the end of the topic, and the conversation turned to something else. For example, scientists said that the situation with the availability of equipment in a number of areas is already satisfactory, but wages are still bad everywhere. Alexander Schneider, CEO of the American company Cure Lab, complained that in Russia there is no link between the publications of scientists and the issuance of grants, and this, in his opinion, deprives them of an incentive to research, including in cooperation with foreign companies.
Oleg Figovsky, Director of Research and Development at the Polymate International Center for Nanotechnology Research, who lives in Israel, expressed concern about two issues. Firstly, he is concerned that for every Russian application to the patent office today there are 100 foreign ones. Secondly, he drew attention to the lack of a middle link between scientists and investors - engineers who will be able to produce nanotechnology products. According to Figovsky, he did not meet a single participant from Russia at the Nanotech nanoengineering conference. Rusnano Board member Yuri Udaltsov assured Figovsky that the training program is already being formed.
A barrage of criticism fell on the state and the current legislation. They talked, among other things, about the imperfection of the customs system and the system of financial transfers, that the prosecutor's office does not protect the company if there is no state participation in it.
Especially depressing against this background was the speech of the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Industry Valery Draganov. Draganov said that he modestly estimates his influence on innovation processes, but is deeply concerned about the quality of Russian legislation. According to him, absolutely all laws need to be changed to support innovation.
Other forum participants presented quite specific projects to stimulate innovation. For example, Alexander Povalko, Deputy head of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs, spoke about the Zvarykinsky project, according to which hundreds of successful innovative companies should appear in Russia by 2013. He invited young people to a forum on Seliger in early July, where vendors will give advice on creating commercial innovative products.
Alexey Kostrov, General Director of the Agency for the Development of Innovative Entrepreneurship, gave an idea of the subsidies offered by the Moscow innovation company and promised to develop a special program for IT companies next year. And the head of the Federal Agency for the Management of Special Economic Zones Andrey Alpatov invited young entrepreneurs to them. Alpatov said that, judging by China's experience, the effect of the zones will appear in 15 years.
The forum ended with awarding the winners of the VIII Russian Innovation Competition, in which 520 projects took part. In the nomination "Innovative Company", the company "Center for Speech Technologies" won, which presented the Voice Key identification technology. Krasnoyarsk developer Stanislav Khartov won in the nomination "White Paper Project" with technology for the formation of integrated nanoelectromechanical systems. And DNA Technology received the Grand Prix for the development of a mobile laboratory for the study of biological materials using DNA and RNA, including devices that can work in the absence of an electrical network.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru/11.06.2009