The inaugural Technopark Convention began at the Skolkovo Hypercube on Thursday, raising the curtain on Russia’s first wide-scale forum for knowledge exchange, idea-generation and dialogue with state officials on the current situation and prospects for the development of technopark infrastructure across the country.
The two-day event brings together representatives from science and technology parks across Russia, as well as all the major stakeholders in creating an innovations-based economy: government, tech startups, development and education institutes.
Skolkovo Foundation senior vice president Vasily Belov. Photo: sk.ru
The Technopark Convention is one of Skolkovo’s catalysts for evolving the Russian economy, and according to the foundation’s senior vice president for innovations Vasily Belov, it’s a good start in a difficult political climate.
“Taking as an example China, where tech parks started to appear 20 years ago, we see that even against the backdrop of a global crisis, China is showing stable growth,” Belov told sk.ru.
“This is to a large extent the result of state programs that have encouraged the growth of more than 150 federal tech parks and a large number of regional ones,” he said.
Belov lamented that the potential stimulus for the Russian economy that new business can provide is “underestimated.”
“Today’s forum is a chance to discuss the trends and possibilities and develop a solution that can be presented to the country’s leadership,” he added.
The convention takes place a matter of weeks after the Skolkovo Technopark was awarded hosting rights to the 2016 International Association of Science Parks World Conference, widely considered the Olympics of the tech park world.
It will stage the event on the territory of the Skolkovo Innovation Center with the support of Technopark Strogino and the Moscow State University Science Park.
Lobbying from the Skolkovo Technopark has helped more than 30 parks across Russia join IASP this year alone.
The convention at the Hypercube was also used as a platform to announce the 2015 Russian Startup Tour, which will visit 10 Russian cities from February through April in search of exciting new innovators.