Posted: December 26, 2008

(Nanowerk News) The Corporation and Saint-Petersburg Administration will cooperate in the next several years on the following topics:

Implementation of the state policy in the field of nanotechnologies; Providing the conditions for commercial use of the scientific and technical activity results in the fields of nanotechnology and nanoindustry; Implementation of the investment and infrastructure projects in the field of nanotechnologies; Implementation of the educational programs in the sphere of HR training and retraining in the field of nanoindustry.

Saint-Petersburg is the sixth region of Russia which has signed a cooperation agreement with RUSNANO. Similar agreements have already been signed with Tomsk and Sverdlovsk Regions, Tatarstan Republic, Moscow and Moscow Region.

One of the first practical examples of realizing the Agreement will be RUSNANO’s participation in activities of the Information and Consulting Center for Innovative Companies. This Center will be opened in Saint-Petersburg on December 25th.

At present, approximately 70 applications for project funding in the areas of energy engineering, mechanical engineering, medicine, electronics have been submitted to the Corporation from Saint-Petersburg.

One of the projects initiated by the scientists from Saint-Petersburg – manufacture of a new generation of lighting products – has already been approved for financing.

This Agreement will become the next strategic document for Saint-Petersburg in developing the regional innovative system, emphasized Valentina Matvienko. "It will allow for preparing the city projects in the fields of nanotechnology more efficiently in order for them to obtain financing by RUSNANO and provide the information interaction between investors and innovators. In turn, Saint-Petersburg will pay special attention towards supporting enterprises working in the area of nanotechnologies. Cooperation between the city and the Corporation within the framework of Saint-Petersburg International Innovative Forum and International Forum on Nanotechnologies will continue. These and many other directions in the joint activity specified in the Agreement will allow for developing its traditional and forming clusters in the city being able to get additional impulse in the nanoprojects and technologies."

"There is no nanotechnological sector in Russia yet; we have to create it from scratch," stated Anatoly Chubais. "This objective can be resolved only by mobilizing the entire potential of all Russian regions. Saint-Petersburg is absolutely unique in terms of scientific and technological edge, higher education potential, demand for innovation from the regional industry. In this sense Saint-Petersburg is one of the key regional priorities for us which supports the development of the Russian nanoindustry that will become a real economical sector in the 21st century."