Report "A Feasibility Study Of The Sarov Open Technopark Project"

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Introduction

    At the June 2002 summit in Kananaskis, Canada, the G8 member-states founded a new initiative, Global Partnership against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction. Its priority concerns included the destruction of chemical weapons, the dismantlement of decommissioned nuclear submarines, the disposition of fissile materials and the employment of former weapons scientists.

The problem of employment of highly qualified specialists formerly involved in nuclear weapons research and development, prevention of uncontrolled brain drain, facilitation of social improvements and economic growth in the territories of nuclear weapons centers constitute an important component in strengthening nonproliferation and preventing the most vital nuclear threats. Much has been done in this area. This, however, does not suffice, especially in the context of new emerging threats related to nuclear terrorism, being the product of terrorist methods fused with special weapons knowledge and technology.

Over the last decade, conditions have gradually formed in Sarov that allow facilities to be created for high-tech civilian business. The Sarov Open Technopark is established in an effort to extend such facilities and to redirect highly qualified specialists to science-based civilian development. The establishment of the Sarov Open Technopark directly meets the goals and objectives of the Global Partnership as proclaimed in Kananaskis.

Along with this, the establishment of the Sarov Open Technopark directly meets internal needs of the Russian Federation connected with the diversification of profitable branches of economy and creation - parallel with the raw material resources branch - of a sizeable branch of science-based production focused on both foreign and internal markets. The Sarov Open Technopark project has been launched in order to enable successful implementation of the innovation development program in the Closed City of Sarov and Nizhniy Novgorod region.

The objective of this project is to establish a technology implementation zone in the region accessible to foreign companies based on the scientific and technical potential of RFNC-VNIIEF.

Such a technology implementation zone can be created and developed most efficiently through partnership between the state and private business. Thus, the strategic goal will be to combine state interests and resources with the private capital and scientific and technical potential of RFNC-VNIIEF.

The Sarov Open Technopark is intended to provide "starting points of growth" for the regional innovation infrastructure in the scientific and technical area. Among the Technopark's primary tasks should be noted the technology transfer, the encouragement of commercial activity, the development of new types of activity and the support of regional initiative.

This will help form a modern innovation environment to support innovative entrepreneurship by creating material and technical, social and cultural, financial and other resources and services to enable effective start-up, development, support and preparation for self-sustaining activity of small and medium innovation businesses, commercialization of scientific knowledge, inventions and science-based technology, and their transfer to the market of scientific and technical products.

The following target criteria have been chosen to assess the successfulness of the Technopark:

• Around 2,000 jobs should be created;
  
  
• The aggregate sales volume of the tenant businesses should be about 1 billion dollars;
  
  
• Over 50 specialists should take courses of further training at the Higher School of Physics every year;
  
  
• The business incubator should turn out several new businesses every year.
  
  

    Creation of self-sustaining businesses on the basis of the Technopark incubator will provide jobs to specialists displaced from VNIIEF defense activities, which corresponds to the objectives of the Global Partnership against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction. Residents of Sarov and neighbor regions, as well as graduates of Russian institutions of higher education will be able to join projects of the Sarov Open Technopark.

The Sarov Open Technopark project has been initiated by the RFNC-VNIIEF Innovative Technology Center.

Although a great deal of preliminary work has been done to date, the Sarov Open Technopark project is still at the incipient stage. The Technopark's organizational structure was determined, a territory was allotted, construction of the first building was started, a number of pilot projects were identified.

Of great importance for the success of the Sarov Open Technopark is to analyze the experience in creating and developing technoparks in the world and in Russia. This report summarizes this experience in the context of the issues it addresses.