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Russian foundation Skolkovo thinks highly of potential of Belarusian startups
MINSK, 22 May (BelTA) – The Russian foundation Skolkovo thinks highly of the potential of Belarusian startups. The statement was made by Skolkovo Senior Vice President for Investment Kirill Kayem before signing an agreement on cooperation with the Belarusian State Technological University on 22 May, BelTA has learned.
Kirill Kayem noted that Skolkovo thinks very highly of the scientific potential of Belarusian startups. “We’ve already hosted an offsite contest of projects – a startup tour – in Belarus twice. We intend to do it again,” he said.
After signing the agreement, the Belarusian State Technological University became the first CIS university with accreditation as the operator of a collective use center of the Skolkovo technopark. The document allows university students, postgraduate students, and scientists of the CIS states to use the university’s equipment for arranging startups. In return, the university will be able to demonstrate its unique equipment, highly qualified scientific personnel, establish new promising contacts, and implement investment projects.
Collective use centers either give direct access to their equipment or perform some of the research work, for which a startup would have to build a lab, for example. “Thanks to this synergy we reduce R&D time while startups get good results,” Kirill Kayem noted. As an example he mentioned the work of the Belarusian engineering center EnCata. Russian startups of the Skolkovo foundation place roughly $1 million worth of orders per annum with the center.
The Belarusian State Technological University is a major versatile education and science center, which trains specialists for manufacturing sector and social sphere of the economy in over 90 university-degree specializations and 37 post-graduate education specializations. The university is a base CIS institution for education in the area of forestry industry and timber industry.
The Skolkovo foundation offers the place and services innovative companies may need in order to successfully develop their technological assets and corporate structure. It is now home to 250 residents. Skolkovo’s network of collective user centers includes hundreds of labs and engineering centers in Russia, Belarus, and other CIS cities.
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