Quarterly Bulletin for the fund Skolkovo experts

Experts



BECOME THE SKOLKOVO FOUNDATION EXPERT

Expert is one of the key persons in the processes of Skolkovo Foundation operation:

 

•         The expert's opinion as to compliance of the applications with the Foundation requirements is the determining factor in taking the decision to grant Project Participant Status.

•         The questionnaires filled in by the experts during assessment of grant memorandums or grantees' reports are the basis for the Grant Committee members to take their decisions as to the expediency and scope of funding.

Who are the experts?

  • Expert is an individual, who renders services to Skolkovo Foundation on carrying out expert examination of innovation projects for a valuable consideration.
  • • Experts render their services to the Foundation on the basis of a civil law contract .
  • С• Foundation employees, their relatives, as well as Grant Committee members cannot be Foundation Experts.

 

What are the Requirements to Foundation Experts?

There are 3 groups of experts:

Scientific


Work experience in scientific positions in R&D or educational Russian or foreign organisations (or as a science editor in leading international science magazines) of at least 5 years.

Technical


Work experience of at least 5 years in the last 10 years in managing positions in R&D or technological area in Russian or foreign production and service companies.

Business


Work experience in managing position in a high-tech company of
at least 3 years in the last 10 years or at least 3 years in the last 10 years in private venture funds.

  

Procedure of selection and assessment of the expert pool

Submitting an application for inclusion in the Foundation expert pool
2-step consecutive processing procedure of the application in the Foundation (Scoring and manual processing)
Signing of the contract
Inclusion in the expert community based on an order
Assessment of experts' work

 

All steps in the process of selection and assessment of candidates for experts shall be regulated and systematic:

      • The experts shall be checked for absence of any affiliation with the Project Participants and their competitors;
      • The experts' work shall be assessed by the members of the Foundation Grant Committee

 

 

Expert's responsibility

These requirements shall be applicable only to expert examinations of grant memorandums and reports. When assessing the projects of the applicants for Skolkovo Project Participant Status through an electronic system, the expert shall not disclose the information on his or her participation in the expert examination (including the applicant's name and project name) to any persons, including members of Grant and Expert Service.

GOOD FAITH

  • By giving the consent to assessment of the project, the expert undertakes an obligation to carry out the expert examination.
  • In case of any force majeure circumstances interfering with timely completion of the expert examination, the expert shall inform the Foundation' s employee.

 

IMPARTIALITY
  • The expert's assessment shall be objective and unprejudiced.
  • The expert shall immediately inform of any self-interest in the results of the project implementation and refuse to perform its assessment.
  • • The expert shall be forbidden to directly contact the applicant. All questions and requests for clarification shall be directed to the Foundation.

 

QUALITY

  • The expert examination report is the main document serving as the basis for the decision on granting the Participant Status.
  • The project assessment bulletin shall be attached to the Grant Committee's materials.
  • All expert examination reports shall be submitted in an anonymous form to the Applicants so that the latter can improve their projects. 

Expert examinations of applications for participant status


Prior to qualifying for obtaining a grant, all the Skolkovo Foundation applicants shall confirm the high degree of their project readiness. For this purpose, via their personal account on www.sk.ru they shall form an application containing the project description and submit it to the Foundation for further expert examination with a view of obtaining the Skolkovo Participant status. Such application shall be distributed among 7 randomly selected experts based on the innovation priority indicated in the application. In this case, the expert examination features the expert's answer to the four key questions in Yes/No format and the expert's comment on each of these questions.

The questions to be answered by the expert are:

Does the product have significant commercialization potential?
Does the product being developed have competitive advantages in the global market?
Is the project theoretically realizable, not violating basic scientific principles?
• Are the team's competencies sufficient for the successful implementation of the project?


Expert examinations of applications for grant


The applicants who have successfully passed the status selection and become the Skolkovo Project Participants are eligible to qualify for a grant. For this purpose, they shall prepare an application for grant that after internal inspections this document package shall be submitted to the experts selected based on their activity profile. From 3 to 5 experts shall take part in the expert examination. The issues to be covered and the depth of expert report elaboration are much greater than in the status expert examination. Experts shall fill in questionnaires.

Expert examinations of reports of grant recipients


Every stage of use of the grant funds shall be closed with the applicant's report. The report shall also be submitted for examination in order to establish compliance of the funds actual spending with the objectives declared when obtaining the grant. Expert examinations of this type are similar to grant examinations. From 3 to 5 expertsshall take part in examination of the report.

Expert’s remuneration

 

Status expert examinations –

10,000 roubles per 1 examination

  

Grant expert examinations and Expert examinations of the grant funds use -

60,000 roubles per 1 examination

  

  

The main document regulating the activities of the Foundation Experts is


Expert Review Services Rendering Policy:


The Expert shall fill in a questionnaire after each of the three types of expert examination. Questionnaire forms are listed below:


Other regulatory documents that may be useful for an expert: