Why do researchers need real business?
May 25 - 26, 2022 Skolkovo hosted the 10th anniversary technology conference Startup Village. This year's theme is "Government, Markets and Society in Times of Turbulence".
The participants discussed not only the current situation, geopolitical factors, turbulence, non-market restrictions and prospects for the development of technology business in Russia. But we also tried to figure out what new market niches are opening up for high-tech businesses and whether there is a sufficient intellectual resource in the country to make a breakthrough.
For more than 10 years, the Skolkovo Foundation has been working at the intersection of the interests of startups, research teams and large businesses. In recent years, the Russian state has been making significant efforts to develop and support technological entrepreneurship and the development of a technology transfer system at universities. In some segments, there is a rapid growth of products and services from new companies. But in the deeptech sector, where B2B business models predominate, goal-setting and organizing not only the “source” of innovation (small businesses, universities, research centers, etc.), but also the “receiver”, that is, large companies and corporations, begin to play an important role. . Moreover, the process of transferring many technological developments of university teams or start-ups into economic circulation depends on how companies build internal cooperation between production and business units, on internal corporate policies for interaction with suppliers, on tolerance for risks, and even on taking into account the company's long-term goals in KPI of top managers. Quite often, one may encounter the fact that even commercial orders by companies to perform R&D at universities have a social function, and are not focused on further obtaining economic effects from the implementation of results.
Sergei Samoilenkov, General Director of CJSC SuperOx (a resident of Technopark Slava), spoke about the motivation of companies to work with research teams, about building strategic partnerships, about the importance of cooperation between technological and innovative companies and universities.
“If you stop focusing and developing in the scientific part of the activity, then this threatens with losses for business. In business, it is very important to be better than others, otherwise those who did not score on it will overtake: the Chinese, Japanese, Germans, Americans, Koreans…
Superox is a pure high-tech enterprise that has taken something from the cutting edge of science, turned it into a product, shaped it into business processes and successfully competes with other companies around the world.”
"Superox" is a young company, the core of the staff in the recent past are graduates of Moscow State University, MEPhI, MAI, MPEI and other leading Moscow universities. The company is developing scientific cooperation with universities and institutes of the Academy of Sciences - young people are also involved in this work. For example, measurements of the properties of manufactured superconductors are regularly performed at FIAN, and at Skoltech, by order of SuperOx, complex ceramic parts were printed on a 3D printer. The company actively conducts scientific research independently. In confirmation of this work, in 2020, the employees were awarded the Government Prize in the field of science and technology for young scientists.