Business news

MINSK, 7 April (BelTA) – The winner of the Belarusian round of the contest of startup projects arranged by the Russian foundation Skolkovo will create an export-oriented enterprise, BelTA learned from Alexander Shumilin, Chairman of the State Science and Technology Committee of Belarus.

According to the source, last year one of the projects won a RUB300,000 prize. “It is a unique project since the initial funding came from Russia while the manufacturing enterprise will be located in Belarus. Plans have been made to export the merchandise to Kazakhstan,” noted the official.

Kirill Levkov’s Turbosphere project provides for designing a new type of plant to recover secondary energy resources, namely the energy of excessive pressure of natural gas. Work on the project is in progress, the technology is being advertised. “We hope that next year we will be able to support the project via the Belarusian Innovative Foundation,” said Alexander Shumilin.

The Minsk round of Skolkovo’s All-Russian Startup Tour in April 2015 was a new way to support startups in Belarus. The Belarusian round of the startup tour was recognized one of the most active rounds last year. The Minsk round allowed its participants to get familiar with practical ways to find investors and to present R&D products for evaluation by international experts. Alexander Shumilin noted that the Minsk round proved the high potential of Belarusian developers.

The Russian foundation Skolkovo is holding a round of its startup tour in Minsk on 7-8 April. The organizers and partners include the infrastructure and educational programs foundation Rosnano, the State Science and Technology Committee of Belarus, and the Minsk City Technopark. University students, teachers and professors, scientists are invited to take part in the startup tour. All the registered participants will get participation certificates and new knowledge for the sake of successful commercialization of innovative projects.

This year’s contest focuses on five areas: biological and medical technologies, biotechnologies in agriculture and industry, industrial technologies and materials, power engineering and energy-effective technologies, information technologies.