Rustam Minnikhanov: The innovative potential of Tatarstan has huge reserves

On December 10, at the Korston Entertainment Complex, speaking at the extended meeting of the Supervisory Board of the Investment-Venture Fund (IVF) of the republic with participation of regional Prime Minister Aleksey Pesoshin, Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov said that the innovative potential of Tatarstan and Russia as a whole has huge reserves, and the contest "Fifty Best Innovative Ideas for the Republic of Tatarstan" is in demand even in today's crisis time.

Minnikhanov emphasized that due to the joint work with the Fund, thousands of breakthrough ideas get a start in life each year, and the republic becomes the centre of attraction of innovations.

He drew attention to the fact that despite the difficult situation, this year IVF of the republic continues to implement such programmes to promote technological entrepreneurship as the programme to support innovative projects "Idea-1000" and the programme to accelerate export-oriented innovative products. “The demand from developers and scientists for these support tools is only growing. We will continue to work in this direction,” Minnikhanov said.

President of Tatarstan Academy of Sciences Myakzyum Salakhov reported on the results of the 16th regional contest "Fifty Best Innovative Ideas for the Republic of Tatarstan". He said that this year 1,934 projects were submitted for participation in the contest, and 175 of them became winners. In total, 9 main competitive nominations and 6 personal scholarships were awarded.

Director of the Technology Transfer Centre at Moscow State University Aleksey Odinokov got acquainted the meeting participants with the activities of the Innopraktika Foundation. It implements projects aimed at increasing national human capital, including through the development of structures and mechanisms of an innovative economy. The company has been operating since 2012.

The meeting participants also discussed the results of the acceleration programme, the development of tools to support technological entrepreneurship and a number of topical issues related to the further activities of IVF of the republic.