Finland’s BioCity Technopark is to build a biotech technopark at the Skolkovo innovation centre under an agreement signed Tuesday at the ongoing International Association of Science Parks and Areas of Innovation (IASP) conference in Moscow.
Kirill Kaem, head of Skolkovo's biomed cluster (left), shakes hands with BioCity's Dmitry Gudimenko. Photo: Sk.ru.
About $60 million will be invested in the construction of the 30,000-square-metre biotech centre, which is planned as a lynchpin of an international innovations ecosystem for biotech companies that will help them to carry out research and development and launch their products – both new medicines and medical devices – on international markets.
“The project is founded on the rich experience of Finland in building biotech science parks,” said Dmitry Gudimenko, director general of BioCity Technopark, who signed the agreement Tuesday, together with Kirill Kaem, head of the Skolkovo Foundation’s biomed cluster.
“We want to unite the efforts of our Russian and Finnish colleagues: universities, industrial partners, startups and, of course, the Skolkovo Foundation,” said Gudimenko.
Kaem said the planned technopark would make Skolkovo one of the most important centres of work in the field of biomedicine, and that it should be ready to welcome its first startups in 18 months or two years.
Support for startups working in the sphere of biotech is particularly crucial, as developing new devices and medicines takes longer than many other areas of innovation due to strict regulations and the need to carry out clinical research and trials, which can take years.
“The most important thing for us is not just to be a smart science centre, but to attract money both for our projects and for the creation of R&D infrastructure,” said Kaem, adding that the foundation’s new Finnish partner represents “the gateway to the markets of Europe.”