The Skolkovo Foundation Board of Directors Approves Development Strategy Until 2024

The board of directors has approved a new development strategy for the Skolkovo Foundation up to 2024 with the prospect of an extension to 2030. The document means the creation of a more client-oriented services ecosystem to achieve the national development goals. The 2030 plan includes increasing the number of project participants to 7,5 thousand, increasing revenue to 500 billion rubles annually, and investments into startups to 40 billion a year.

The number of project participants is planned to increase to 7,5 thousand by 2030. Photo: Sk.ru.

The deputy chairman of the government of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Chernyshenko, is leading the creation of strategies for development institutes within the framework of activities of the IT and innovations committee and VEB.RF. If necessary, upon completion of the Foundation’s strategy, the leadership may specify further provisions.

Under the current document, the Skolkovo Foundation and the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech), as part of VEB.RF Group, will continue to ensure Russia’s sustained technological leadership in priority areas to achieve the national development goals.

Igor Shuvalov, the chairman of VEB.RF and chairman of the board of directors of the Skolkovo Foundation: 

“We are continuing to adjust cooperation with Skolkovo in the framework of development institute reforms, and the strategy approved by us today is a document that reflects the multi-faceted approach to the Skolkovo Foundation, Skoltech, and VEB.RF in ensuring Russia’s sustained technological leadership. Skolkovo has resident companies that can bring new high-tech products to the Russian and global markets and help implement complex projects. VEB.RF Group is prepared to offer its hand and its ability to implement these tasks.”

Skolkovo will build a services ecosystem focused on participants and partners, which is designed to ensure the support and acceleration of small and medium technology companies. Skoltech will engage in generating, developing, and transferring world-class science and technological know-how to Russian companies. VEB.RF, in its turn, will ensure the structuring and project finance of priority technology areas to support demand for innovative solutions.

Arkady Dvorkovich, the chairman of the Skolkovo Foundation:

“We have integrated three main components of the ecosystem into our overall strategy, understanding that none of us could implement such ambitious tasks separately. The first is science and education through Skoltech and its partners in Russia and the world. The second is the Skolkovo Foundation, with its continuous flow of startups and its industrial partners located here with their R&D centers and startups integrated into their corporate innovation systems. The third is the system of development institutes put in place within the VEB.RF framework. This element is vital for scaling up projects and bringing them to market in a much larger volume than is feasible with the efforts of Skolkovo alone. We believe that in precisely this case, it is possible to set ambitious goals to implement our all-around contribution towards achieving Russia’s technological leadership in key areas.”

The strategy goals include:

• the generation of a critical mass of world-class academic and technological competence in areas with high scale-up potential;
• the implementation of breakthrough Russian technologies via the implementation of complex projects;
• converting the best Russian technologies at intellectual property facilities and startups, followed by market entry;
• the development of mass technological entrepreneurship;
• decreasing the risks in implementing technological projects to attract private capital into technological development and creating new markets by forming a new services system.

Two scenarios – conservative and ambitious – are under consideration for the implementation of Skolkovo’s strategy.

The leading indicators for the conservative scenario for 2030 are:

• an increase in the number of project participants to 7,5 thousand, five thousand of which will be used to achieve the national development goals;
• growth in annual revenue for project participants to 500 billion rubles;
• growth in annual investments into technology startups to 40 billion rubles.

In the ambitious scenario, the Government of the Russian Federation, and the federal and regional authorities can use Skolkovo’s potential to implement between five and seven complex breakthrough technology projects. This requires creating experimental legal regimes on the innovation center territory and for its participants in other parts of the country, as well as the financial support necessary for infrastructure investments.

In addition, the Foundation and its subsidiaries may act as the operators of designated state support measures, including the creation of new investment mechanisms, partial compensation for costs incurred on clients, and financial support of innovative projects at early stages, including university startups.

In assessing Skolkovo’s contribution to economic growth, it is necessary to monitor the following indicators:

• the macroeconomic effect of the introduction of technologies by sector and key technological development areas, including the amount of tax paid by project participants and graduates, as well as the contribution to Russia’s GDP by project participants and R&D centers of Skolkovo partners and graduates;
• the number of exporter-participants, as well as companies with growth exceeding 30% annually;
• the survival rate of project participants engaged in economic activities according to the data of the federal tax service.