Νew Technologies and Innovation Development in Russia

It was unwise for Medvedev to bring in foreigners to run science research.

Einstein was just a patent clerk in US Patent Office who saw what others were making to steal others work.

If it wasn't for Nikoli Tesla the world would not have everything it has right now. Nikoli was theived from and despised by Einstein.

All Russia needs to do is find its Nikoli Tesla and let him work behind closed doors....

But then again enemy thieves now have spy robots small as flies to steal research......

Russia has no means to steal and is being stolen from. Hence Medvedev figured might as well open doors to enemy....sovereignty lost.

Russia building 10-petaflop supercomputer

Computerworld - T-Platforms, a Moscow-based tech company that has built some of that nation's largest systems, is developing a 10-petaflop supercomputer for M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, the company said this week.

This large system puts it in the ballpark of similarly announced systems being developed in the major supercomputing countries, and may signal Russia's intent to become a major participant in the race to exascale.

Russia is playing catch-up in a rapidly developing race among China, Japan, the U.S. and Europe to build an exascale system in this decade. These are systems which would have 1,000 petaflops of computing power. (A petaflop is a quadrillion floating-point operations per second.)

Building an exascale system will require new approaches in microprocessors, interconnects, memory and storage. If breakthroughs happen outside the U.S., it could seed development of companies that could challenge the U.S. dominance in tech.

Russia "is committed to having exascale computation capabilities by 2018-2020 and is prepared to make the investments to make that happen," said Mike Bernhardt, who writes The Exascale Report and who was asked to respond to a Computerworld query by T-Platforms. More details about the Russian exascale effort will come out in the next year, he said.

T-Platforms is establishing itself as the leading HPC maker in Russia, and is also gaining customers outside of Russia, particularly in Europe. It has previously built a 1.3 petaflop system at Lomonosov.

The latest system at Lomonosov will be water-cooled and is expected to be operational by the end of 2013. It will use Intel and Nvidia chips, and possibly Intel's MIC chip if it is available for design efforts in 2012, the company said.

The view from Russia is very similar to that of Europe. All these nations would like to be less dependent on U.S. technology to build high performance systems.

"At this point, there is unity in believing any company, on a global scale, would be foolish to state that they know the exact technology or components they will use to build an exascale machine," said Bernhardt, in an email. "Systems will be hybrid, heterogeneous and unique. And there are too many unknowns and too many paths being explored at this time to pick the winners from these many options."

"You can expect to see Russia holding its own in the exascale race with little or no dependence on foreign manufacturers," said Bernhardt.

For now, the world is dependent on the U.S. IBM today has nearly 45% share of the systems on the Top 500 list of the world's largest systems; Hewlett-Packard has 28%, and Cray, 5.4%.

Europe is already exploring alternative technologies, including use of ARM processors by the UK-based company ARM Holdings.

"Exascale computing is a challenge, and indeed an opportunity for Europe to become a global HPC leader," said Leonardo Flores Anover, who is the European Commission's project officer for the European Exascale Software Initiative, in an email response to a query. "This can only be achieved if there is a real European policy with the EU member states."

"The EU effort is intended to support excellence in the European supply and use of HPC in all domains (for industry, science and society) that are strategic for us," said Anover. "In particular on the supply side, the goal is to foster the development of a European industrial capability," he said.

China has developed its own interconnects and processors, which it is now using in some of its HPC systems.

There are multiple efforts underway in the U.S. to develop architecture and technologies for exascale platforms. But funding for a multi-year project, which will likely cost billions of dollars is, for now, hinging on a report from the U.S. Department of Energy to Congress by Feb. 10.

This DOE report is expected to outline the reasons for an exascale initiative in the U.S., the international efforts, and the cost of achieving exascale.

Patrick Thibodeau covers SaaS and enterprise applications, outsourcing, government IT policies, data centers and IT workforce issues for Computerworld. Follow Patrick on Twitter at Twitter@DCgov, or subscribe to Patrick's RSS feed Thibodeau RSS. His e-mail address is pthibodeau@computerworld.com.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9222994/Russia_building_10_petaflop_supercomputer?taxonomyId=67&pageNumber=2

The problem with computing is the exponential increase in performance is very hard to get your head around.

Stalin once said roughly that 5 dead is a tragedy, 3 million dead is a statistic.

Basically humans have trouble comprehending really big numbers.

To explain to children about computer terms I find a good way is to use different units as examples.

The terms kilo, mega, giga, peta, exa are prefixes that multiply the units they are attached to. If you read about radar and radio waves then you might be familiar with the terms kilohertz, megahertz, and gigahertz. The unit is hertz, so a kilohertz is 1000 x 1 Hertz, a megahertz is 1000 x 1000 x 1 Hertz... etc etc.

When talking about weight or distance because these numbers get really big really quickly we are familiar with grammes and metres, and also kilogrammes and kilometres, but megagrammes and megametres are such large distances we are not familiar with the terms as they are not needed in normal everyday life.

Common units used in computers include measurements of clock speed (in hertz)... so a quad core 3.2 GHz CPU, memory capacity in bytes (GB or Gigabytes is common for RAM, while for Hard Drives they are into Terabytes already)

Prefixes available include:

yotta 1000000000000000000000000 1E24
zetta 1000000000000000000000 1E21
exa 1000000000000000000 1E18
peta 1000000000000000 1E15
tera 1000000000000 1E12
giga 1000000000 1E9
mega 1000000 1E6
kilo 1000 1E3

(note the 1Exx is scientific notation where 1E3 means 1 followed by 3 zeros.

Each prefix is 1,000 times bigger than the one below it, so when the article above talks about the race to get to an exaflops speed super computer the chart above gives you an idea of what they are talking about. BTW a FLOP is a floating point operation.

It indicates the speed at which the CPUs can perform mathematic calculations.

As I said the bigger numbers are difficult to put in perspective... I used to use time to show the increase from one to the other and it is pretty easy to do with a calculator.

Instead of kilobytes kb, megabytes mb, gigabytes gb... etc etc I substitute seconds. ( a byte is a single character, it could be the letter a, or A or a space, or the number 3, or a comma or &)
It is hard to comprehend 1,000 characters let alone a billion, so instead of bytes I use seconds.

1 second is easy to understand.
1 kilosecond is 1,000 seconds or just over 16 minutes worth of seconds.
1 megasecond is 1,000 kiloseconds or just over 11 and a half days worth of seconds.
1 gigasecond is 1,000 megaseconds or just over 31 and a half years worth of seconds.
1 terasecond is 1,000 gigaseconds or just over 31,500 years worth of seconds.
1 petasecond is 1,000 teraseconds... 31.5 million years worth of seconds.
1 exa second is 1,000 petaseconds... 31.5 billion years worth of seconds.

1 Exa second is over twice the believed age of the universe... which is something like 13-14 billion years!!!!

Skolkovo unveils new method of hydrocarbon exploration

Russia`s Geonod company based in the Skolkovo innovation center outside Moscow have unveiled a technology of marine bottom prospecting seismology for hydrocarbons.

One of the company`s co-chairmen, Yevgeny Borisov, told the ITAR-TASS news agency that the recently invented method is currently the most economically and technically efficient when it comes to prospecting for hydrocarbons at the depth from 0 to 7,000 meters.

The Geonod Prospecting-600 set of geophysical devices ensures the collection of data even in the most remote areas.

http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_07_24/Skolkovo-unveils-new-method-of-hydrocarbon-exploration/

Kamaz to open up R&D facility in Skolkovo

KamAZ, a leading Russian truck manufacturer based in Tatarstan, in the mid-Volga area, is expected to build its own R&D Center in the Skolkovo innovation hub just outside Moscow, the Skolkovo Foundation website reports. A pertinent agreement has been signed between Viktor Vekselberg, the president of the Skolkovo Foundation, and Sergei Kogogin, the CEO of KamAZ.

Under the terms of the agreement, KamAZ’s R&D Center will focus on energy-efficient projects to improve long-haul freight transportation and on developing IT solutions for trucks.

On the side news: has it been now a common trend to open up a tech park in every major city in Russia?  Since Skolkovo was announced, there seems to be new technopark in Kazan, Irkutsk, Tomsk, Novosibrisk, etc.  I think it is a really good trend to have a centre in all these cities that deals with R&D, manufacturing and business relations.  These will be probably the leading locations for the future of development.  Now they just need small-medium sized businesses involved and Russia's economy can skyrocket (well, that with construction development is heavily needed).

http://izvestia.ru/news/552952

Apparently, Izvestia is claiming that funding for research is dropping by 20-30%and Skolkovo and Rusnano are first.  Although, it runs counter to what the Deputy Prime minister said about proper funding of science.   Seeing as how it is izvestia, my guess it is another tabloid article, but if it is true, then I guess there may be some problems.

It may not be a bad idea to drop certain amount of financing from Rusnano and Skolkovo, as both have had various projects that were either not worth much or money allocation being stolen.  What is funny though, is that these are the two most heavily funded groups by Russian government, and they are having problems, while the regional technoparks are sounding like they are doing quite well or lots of room for doing well, and they have much less beaurocracy from federal government.

They say the money to be saved will be used on social development like making cheaper housing and my guess would be infrastructure development.

Edit: When reading further, this caught my eye:

"- There is a reduction programs to support small businesses, citing the fact that the previously allocated money has not been disbursed. But we understand that they are not always are not utilized due to the lack of good projects, it just works budget policy, - she said. - As for the "Skolkovo", it is unclear what is going on in this project and how the money is spent. Since the "RUSNANO" and "Skolkovo" revealed serious violations, the reduction in funding is unlikely to affect their performance."

That would make sense. With having less money to work with, they will try to tighten up and get more from it. Having more "handouts" will only mean more will by syphoned.

It is true - I have read it several days before. Still Sokolovo and Rusnano will retain huge funding no matter 20%-30% slashing. We are still talking about several bin $ or maybe even more. After initial buildup its up to them to start production money and government is there to cover for difference until on their feat.
I dont see US government financing Silicon Valley.

Viktor wrote:It is true - I have read it several days before. Still Sokolovo and Rusnano will retain huge funding no matter 20%-30% slashing. We are still talking about several bin $ or maybe even more. After initial buildup its up to them to start production money and government is there to cover for difference until on their feat.
I dont see US government financing Silicon Valley.

I remember reading many years ago about Skolkovo's development and Rusnano's as well, and it appeared to have been mentioned that they would drop support once the foundation was set. But it seemed that funding was still ongoing, and they blew a lot of the extra funds on things that they didn't need or was stolen. From my understanding, Rusnano has various projects that are becoming useful, but out of so many of them, various failed. I think with less government handout, they may be more careful in what they will invest in. I guess they will go for the things that will make the biggest differences - semiconductor, energy and pharma.

Question: How much does federal government have in terms of funding over the other regional technoparks?

I remember reading interview with director of Rusnano in regard to this fund slashing where he said that Rusnano is requiring less and less budget money year after year but the projected year when none of the budget money will be required is past time and that they are hoping to achieve self sufficiency soon. Thats all I remember and I did not look at the subject any more.

Viktor wrote:I remember reading interview with director of Rusnano in regard to this fund slashing where he said that Rusnano is requiring less and less budget money year after year but the projected year when none of the budget money will be required is past time and that they are hoping to achieve self sufficiency soon. Thats all I remember and I did not look at the subject any more.

Well, time will tell to see what the outcome of this may be. I read around at about the various technoparks and the incubators, and majority of them are not stating where majority of funding is coming from, other than provincial or city budget. So my guess is, reason why Rusnano and Skolkovo are mentioned, is because they are pretty much the Federal governments variant of the Technopark as well as high tech consolidation company. Funny how when the other technoparks are being created, they already have quite the amount of domestic and foreign business involved, while Skolkovo has few foreign ones and various domestic.

I am wondering as to why Skolkovo needed so much financing, even after all this time? I mean, Rusnano made some sense, especially for startup and to bail out failed projects, but Skolkovo had quite a bit of foreign funding as well.

Great thread sepheronx!

Russia Approves IT Development Roadmap

MOSCOW, July 15 (RIA Novosti) – The Russian government approved a roadmap Monday for the domestic IT industry in an apparent move to boost the country's development in innovative spheres and diversify the economy away from raw material exports.
The roadmap for 2013-2018, developed by the Communications Ministry on the orders of President Vladimir Putin, stipulates the development of IT research, infrastructure and specialist training and the creation of tax and legal benefits for IT companies, the website Digit.ru reported on Monday.
“The IT sector needs a breakthrough. We need to raise the level of education in the IT sector, expand research in this sphere – both with the help of domestic higher education establishments and scientific organizations, and by creating new world-class research centers – as well as improve new mechanisms for supporting the IT business and exports of Russian high-tech products,” Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told a government meeting on Monday.
“As a result, IT growth rates should exceed Russia’s average GDP growth at least threefold; this is what we can legitimately count on,” Medvedev said.
Russia’s GDP grew only 3.4 percent last year – the lowest figure since the deep recession of 2009 – on weak demand for Russian exports in Europe.
The number of high-performance IT jobs should exceed 600,000 by 2018 and the output and export of domestic IT products and IT services should have doubled by that time, the premier said.
Communications Minister Nikolai Nikiforov, who was present at the government meeting, said Russia’s IT exports were expected to grow from $4.4 billion in 2012 to $9 billion by 2018, according to Digit.ru.

That is some good news. Although, there needs to be something to connect the institutions with the private/public enterprises because as it is, majority of breakthroughs in technology, happens at the universities, not at the industries. The industries usually just take that technology, expand it a bit, and then sell it en-mass.

There could be a MAJOR breakthrough in the IT sector in Russia if, and only if, MCST, Micron, Elveese and multiklet decided to work with the local universities to produce new technologies, and they produce the means of manufacturing it.

Technopolis GS

Technopolis GS is a unique private innovation cluster in the Kaliningrad region, which creates an ideal environment for the initiation, development and implementation of innovative ideas. Technopolis GS includes production zones, a research center, a business incubator and a residential area. GS Group is the general investor and initiator of the project. The project aims to establish close cooperation between Russian science and economics, as well as creating conditions for talented young Russian professionals to achieve self-fulfilment and benefit their country. Technopolis GS is located on in a special economic zone in the Kaliningrad region.

Technopolis GS is a modern city where high-tech plants successfully operate, a comfortable infrastructure is being built, and a favourable environment for self-fulfilment and continuous growth for both technical and creative professionals is being formed. Together they make up the so-called "creative class", a layer in a society thinking in terms of the future and creating it now.

The objective of the project is to create a new effective pole of innovative development for Russia.

Technopolis GS includes:

a production area: the large-scale production of innovative Russian products;
a scientific research centre: a platform for the generation of new ideas,  and project development by talented Russian specialists;
a business incubator and venture fund: the conditions for the establishment and growth of prospective young businesses based on the projects developed by Russian and foreign teams, idea generators;
an education Center: for training specialists for the Technopolis;
a residential zone: a European style landscaped community;
Complexes with cultural and recreational facilities and offices for residents: consumer, cultural, recreational infrastructure supporting the lifestyle of the creative class, plant workers, residents and visitors to Technopolis.

Technopolis GS enterprises:

GS Nanotech is a micro and nano-electronics research and production centre. Its production capacity is 10 million microchips per year. This is the only Russian company providing encapsulating services to foreign customers. GS Nanotech production will allow for the packaging and testing of memory modules, single-chip and multichip microprocessors and other electronic components in PBGA, PQFN packages and others.
The public company “NPO “Digital Television Systems” is a contractual production site which provides services for the surface mounting of motherboards and electronic equipment assembling. This plant is the largest radio-electronic production facility in Russia.
LLC “Prankor” is a manufacturer of TV antennas and frames. Its production is unique for the North-West region of Russia with production output per month of more than 300 thousands items.
The First Cardboard Factory is a modern enterprise producing a wide range of products from corrugated cardboard.
IHBF “White Key” is an integrated house-building factory, a manufacturer of comfortable and affordable cottages planned individually with modular technology. Built to produce affordable and comfortable accommodation in the Kaliningrad region, the plant assembles houses, decorates, puts together furniture and sanitary ware sets in an industrial setting.
The following objectives have been achieved in the Technopolis today:

integrated economic development of the Technopolis, the improvement of its social infrastructure, the creation of conditions for encouraging innovative activities;
development and expansion of the electronic industry cluster. Technopolis GS will include seven high-tech factories, five of which have already been built and are operating;
the testing of a model of innovative development for a small Russian city which can later be used to rebuild the economy of other small towns in the country;
The Technopolis has created new jobs. The number of employees working at the plants exceeds 2,000 people (as of December 1, 2012). There are plans to create at least 1,500 new jobs in the main production and 1,500 in the service sector.

Info from Wikipedia:

Project background

In 2007, in Gusev, for the first time in Russia, was established a production of set-top boxes for receiving satellite and terrestrial television broadcasts. Several months later, the General Satellite Corporation started building a plant in Gusev to manufacture household electronics products. The agreement between the mayor of Gusev, Nikolay Tsukanov, and the president of the General Satellite Corporation, Andrey Tkachenko, was signed in 2008, in order to create a modern industrial park in the city. The idea was approved by local authorities and was presented at the International Investment Forum "Sochi-2008".
The decision to locate the new production facilities in Gusev, according to Andrey Tkachenko, was made for two reasons. First, the experience of the first similar plant that had been working in Gusev as part of the special economic zone - the official residence of the Corporation - was successful. Second, the administration of the city took a great interest in cooperation for the creation of Technopolis and in a comprehensive solution to the problem of the territory development.

In 2009, two plants, JSC NPO Digital Television Systems (DTS) and Prankor, Ltd., were run - their products have no analogues in Russia. The plants produce set-top boxes for receiving the satellite and terrestrial TV broadcasts, and the production conveyor ensures a complete production cycle: starting with the motherboard and all the way up to the case and the satellite antennas as well. Formerly, most of these devices in the Russian market were imported, usually from China.

Project mission

To create in Gusev a new effective pole for innovative development of Russia.
Project objectives

comprehensive economic development of Gusev, improving its social infrastructure, creating conditions for the development of innovative activity in the city and transformation of Gusev into a Technopolis toward 2013.
establishing in Gusev a radio-electronics industry cluster. The Project envisages the construction of 5 high-tech industries, 2 of which are already running.
testing an innovative model of small cities development in Russia, which can be applied to revive other towns in the country, according to the Project results.
Investments

Total investments in the Project (2008–2013): 5 billion rubles.
Until the February 2010, invested: 1,5 billion rubles.

Technopolis area

400 hectares. Over 3000 jobs.

Project milestones

2009:
— Opening the Plant for the household radio-electronics products' manufacture;
— Commissioning the Plant for manufacturing metal and plastic products by stamping.

2010:
— Opening a Factory for the production of corrugated cardboard and packaging;
— Commissioning the House-Building Plant.

2011:
— Erection of the first stage of the cottage settlement in Gusev;
— Commissioning the social and business center of Technopolis.

2012:
— Inaugurating a microelectronics Factory (microprocessors assembly and casing);
— Construction of the second stage of the cottage settlement in Gusev;
— Integrated land improvement and social infrastructure construction;
— Opening a branch of SPSU, organization of educational and research process at the University's Education and Research Complex.

2013:
— Inaugurating a printed circuit board producing Plant;
— Setting on foot a Customs Warehouse.

The anticipated outcomes of the Project

Development of new industries in Gusev
-Household radio-electronics manufacturing Plant
-Television antennas and case manufacturing Plant
-Corrugated cardboard and packaging producing Factory
-House-Building Plant
-Microelectronics Plant.

Creation of Educational and Scientific Research Center
-Design Bureau
-University Educational and Scientific Park (UESP)
-Venture Fund for supporting and implementing research and development accomplished both within Technopolis and outside of it
-Business Incubator – Industrial Park (BII).

Social and economics outcomes for the city and region
-increase the level and quality of life for the city and district residents;
-strengthening innovation and business activity in the Kaliningrad region;
-creating in Gusev a new Kaliningrad region growth pole.[11]

National-scale results
-formation of a modern radio-electronics industry cluster that can be an engine of innovation development of the branch;
-testing an innovative model of development of small cities in Russia according to the example set by Gusev;
-formation of a complex enterprise that can provide for the mobile digitalization of Russian TV;
-creating an innovative growth pole and attracting Russian and foreign investments into domestic high-tech industry;
-formation of Russia's image as a technologically advanced country.

http://marchmontnews.com/Technology-Innovation/Central-regions/19775-University-Southern-California-seeks-collaboration-with-Skolkovo-.html

The Los Angeles-based University of Southern California (USC) has plans to collaborate with the Skolkovo innovation hub, the Skolkovo Foundation announced last week.

Charles McKenna, professor of chemistry and vice dean for natural sciences at USC, is reported to have visited Skolkovo’s main techno-park last week to take a look at its microanalysis and prototyping lab, talk to executives at Skolkovo and Skoltech (Skolkovo University for Science and Innovation), and also meet residents of Skolkovo’s biomed cluster doing research in areas that are of interest for the American university.

According to Mr. McKenna, during his visit he purposed to assess and agree upon prospects for collaboration, especially in the area of start-up development and research activity. As the USC vice dean put it after his meetings, the partners want to jointly create “a new chemical compound in innovation development.”

Russia Mulls Opening Branch of Skolkovo Tech Hub in Belarus

MOSCOW, July 24 (RIA Novosti) – A decision to set up a branch of Russia’s Skolkovo high-tech hub in Belarus will be made before the end of this year, the secretary of the Russia-Belarus union state said Wednesday.
“We discussed the issue of creating a Skolkovo branch in Belarus as a structure that would work jointly with Skolkovo on innovation projects,” Grigory Rapota said.
“There is a strict instruction to resolve this issue before the end of this year, and I believe it will be resolved.”

Big news

Rusnano and Crocus Technologies co developed a company called "Daughter" that first phase of construction was launched on a new facility to build MRAM (Magnetoresistive) memory build with 90nm technology, first in the world. The plant will produce by 2014, around 500 Wafers per week at 200 - 300mm wafer CMOS technology, and it will employ around 100 specialists.

The co development is between Rusnano and Crocus Technologies. The investment was 10B rubels with which Rusnano invested 4.4 B of it.

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&nv=1&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://sdelanounas.ru/blogs/42954/&usg=ALkJrhiIJaNe7FB1DoKFsNy_WnBJTe5GLQ

Looks very promising and innovative .....something along the lines Russia need to develop in decades ahead.

I always wondered why Russia could not come with a Samsung or an Apple of the world ....hopefully we might see that in years ahead.

Probably not. Market is too over saturated. Closest would be Sitronics as they are the biggest and their products can be found in most developed countries.

This though, if developed enough, will find itself in a lot of military and space equipment, as MRAM would be less susceptible than regular circits in heavy magnetic fields.

If lets say that sitronics owned MCST, Elvees and this company, as well as any other company that deals with making things like fridges, sound systems, ect then they could be like samsung. But companies that do deal in that are all pretty small or medium sized in Russia, or state owned. Having such a large corporation like that my not be the best due to lack of domestic competition. As well, only so much money can be gained via taxes for the state.

Maybe other company could be GS Group as well, since they own the private tech cluster technopolis GS in Kaliningrad.

It would be nice to see MCST be merged with elvees instead as both would mean more financing and both deal with microprocessor technologies, elvees dealing with RISC and its neuromatrix while MCST has Elbrus line of SPARC and x86. MCST uses elvees dsp cores, so why not merge two of them as elvees has more money and could have much larger market share.

It is mentioned in link pertaining to the link I shared about moving to 65nm tech and producing at least 1000 a week after 2014.

Skolkovo launches Hydrocarbon Center for education and R&D

Skoltech, Skolkovo’s university of education and technology, has launched its second Center for Science, Innovation and Education to focus on advanced hydrocarbon exploration and production technologies, the Skolkovo Foundation website announced.

A classic example of private-public partnership, the Center will focus on a variety of segments, including hydrocarbon exploration and production; geothermal energy; and carbon dioxide sequestration aimed at isolating carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and reducing the greenhouse effect. The Center will be expected to meet specific technology needs that Russian oil and gas producers have.

Bad News
Russian prosecutors report $4bn embezzlement in Skolkovo

The Attorney General’s Office of Russia has discovered new embezzlement cases in the operation of the Skolkovo Foundation, RBC daily reported, citing a source in the Office.

The prosecutors who have conducted a thorough investigation indicate multiple cases of “unrestricted spending” and a “lack of diligence” in the work of some executives at the foundation that runs the development and operation of Skolkovo, Russia’s government-sponsored innovation hub just outside Moscow.

“The Skolkovo Foundation management has failed to ensure proper supervision of the ‘innovation city’ development project, which has resulted in unrestricted and way too excessive squandering of funds to the detriment of the state,” the Attorney General’s Office pointed out.

The prosecutors estimate that unwarranted spending, including new large-scale embezzlement, has cost Russia’s federal coffers an astronomical $4bn.

They need to sack almost everyone in charge of Skolkovo and look elsewhere for others to help in the project. Technopolis GS is completely private and had no issues whatsoever. This project on the other hand, as good as some came out of it, there is a lot of theft.

Siberian mobile interfaces win hearts of BIT contest jury

Appercode, a project developed by a resident of Novosibirsk’s Academpark in Siberia, was pronounced the winner of te federal BIT tech project competition. The news came last week during Moscow’s international Open Innovations forum, the Academpark website announced.

Appercode has developed a platform to create mobile apps interfaces, which is said to enable a three-to-five time reduction of the time and cost of developing such interfaces for the iOS, Android, Windows Phone and Windows 8 powered devices without any loss in their quality. The project is reported to have outshone more than 1,500 other contenders for the first prize from 80 cities of Russia and the former Soviet Union.

[url= http://marchmontnews.com/Technology-Innovation/Urals/20262-Extreme-North-region-encourages-local-innovation.html]Extreme North region encourages local innovation[/url]

A reported 64 projects have applied for participation in an innovation project competition being held by the authorities of the Yamal-Nenets region in Northwest Siberia, Alliance-Media reported.

Most applications reportedly came from the IT and tourism sectors (13 and nine projects, respectively).

In addition, regional innovators are seeking government support in pushing their projects in food and light industries, ecology, energy saving and alternative energy, public utilities, housing construction in the Extreme North conditions, transportation, and road building.

Next gen fiber optic probe developed and manufactured in Urals

Alexander Korsakov, a young scientist at Ural Federal University (UrFU) in Yekaterinburg, has been awarded this year’s Russian Youth Prize for Nanotechnology for the development of brand new fiber optic probes for infrared interferometer spectrometers, the UrFU press service announced.

Developed just recently, the new probes have already been put into production at UrFU’s Innovation Infrared Fiber Technologies Center.

In Siberia, eco-friendly coal burning cuts costs and boosts efficiency

An automated eco-friendly and energy-efficient coal burning project, developed by EcoEnergia in Siberia’s Krasnoyarsk, has got to the top of the new Russian Startup Rating (RSR), the KRITBI innovation business incubator announced. EcoEnergia is a resident of this Krasnoyarsk-based incubator.

The project has been given a ranking of AA-90, which means “high probability of success.”

All projects, screened in accordance with a special RSR methodology, fell into three categories: new materials and equipment (High-Tech), biotechnology and medicine (BioMed), and IT, including Internet and mobile start-ups.

EcoEnergia ranked among the leaders in the High-Tech category. Its project aims to create an automated system that pre-treats and helps burn at thermal power stations the coals of the Kansk-Achinsk Coal Basin in Siberia.

By 2023, Ulyanovsk Nanotech Center to launch 96 new start-ups

Over the next ten years the Ulyanovsk Nanotech Center in the mid-Volga area wants to launch as many as 96 new start-ups generating about $1.4bn in aggregate revenue, Alliance-Media reported, citing a statement by Governor Sergei Morozov of the Ulyanovsk region.

The governor announced the plans during the Open Innovations international forum that was held last week in Moscow.

Young Ulyanovsk Nanotech Center nurtures 30 high-tech projects

The recently launched Ulyanovsk Nanotech Center in the mid-Volga area is supporting about 30 high-tech projects, regional news agency Media 73.ru reported.

According to Andrei Redkin, the CEO of the Center, an overall investment the company has raised so far is already twice the amount the Ulyanovsk region once paid to build the Center.

The region allocated about $6m. The overall tab for the project ran up to almost $40m, with Rusnano, Russia’s nanotech giant, providing most of the funds.

St. Pete and Silicon Valley scientists keen to retire silicon in electronics

Scientists from St. Petersburg and Silicon Valley are collaborating to grow super-thin nanodiamond film to be used in new generation electronics, the Vesti TV website reported.

The research is being conducted on the premises of St. Petersburg State Electrical Engineering University, a leading educational and R&D hub bearing the historical abbreviation of LETI. Based on microscopic films and nanodiamonds, which the scientists grow right in their labs, the team wants to lay the foundation for brand new computers and mobile phones.

Sberbank to boost innovation in Kaluga’s agriculture

Sberinvest, an investment arm of Sberbank, Russia’s largest savings bank, has unveiled plans to assist the Kaluga region in Central Russia in developing its innovation bioindustry segment in agriculture. An agreement has been reached between the company and the region’s agricultural authorities, Sberinvest announced.

Russia disburses another $60m for another four regional high-tech parks

Four more Russian regions will receive over $60m in federal co-funding by the end of next year to build their own high-technology techno-parks, as Russia’s eight-year techno-park funding program continues, the Russian Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications announced last week following the completion of its open tender for Russia’s regions.

This time, the winning regions include Moscow, the Sverdlovsk and Penza regions (in the Urals and in Central Russia, respectively), and the Republic of Mordovia in the mid-Volga area.

Bad News and Good News:
Rusnano shuts down its Nitol poly-Si project in Siberia

Rusnano, Russia’s largest nanotech company, has shut down Nitol, its poly-Si production project in the Irkutsk region in Siberia which has brought multibillion ruble loss, Russian business daily Vedomosti reported.

According to Anatoly Chubais, the president of Rusnano, Rusnano’s decision to close the Nitol project in the town of Usolye Sibirskoye has been backed by the Russian Government.

However, Rusnano will continue to tap into renewable energy technologies and is expected to launch a new project in Usolye to manufacture components for solar generation equipment. This will be a focus on much deeper processing rather than just making raw material which Nitol did, Mr. Chubais said.

The decision to start a new endeavor stems from the Russian Government’s recently adopted seven-year strategy aimed at supporting renewable energy in this country. The $230m effort is expected to have an IRR of 31%, Rusnano reckons.

@ Austin

This is what I was getting at when saying that even if Russia started up a company late doing something that half the world does already, then it will not be profitable and would end up dead. This above is an example of it. They were developing polisilicon and nothing else. At the time it was inducted, silicon prices were up. Now they are so far down, that is was not profitable to keep the business and such, it was shut down. Now they are building a new plant in its place to produce solar power modules and alike, so an actual end product other than just the silicon. It was a smart move by Rusnano to shut this plant down, as it was not profitable (so a drain), and they could build something else instead in its place (in this case, many who lost their jobs will end up getting a new job in the proposed new plant). And as mentioned in the news above this post, St. Pete and Silicon Valley scientists are working on an alternative to silicon for technology development. So it would probably be in Russia's best interest to further look into that and get involved in building a plant that can actually produce the alternative stuff, and this could lead Russia in the semiconductor industry. Not rehashing the same things. People would be interested in purchasing Russian semiconductors that do not require silicon.

L0L

$4 billion? Not bad, not a bad heist they pulled off at all.

Somehow, I had my doubts that this sort of highway robbery was still possible in Russia today; for a project with so many international connections and investors, and with such a high-profile, aiming to show the 'new Russia'. Hell, Medvedev even took the trouble to appoint one of Russia's richest men to head it, Viktor Vekselberg, undoubtedly under the logic that since he already has so much money he wouldn't bother trying to steal a bit more.

Well I see I've been proved wrong.

I guess what's encouraging, is that it's been uncovered, and the guilty parties (at least some of them), will be punished.

flamming_python wrote:L0L

$4 billion? Not bad, not a bad heist they pulled off at all.

Somehow, I had my doubts that this sort of highway robbery was still possible in Russia today; for a project with so many international connections and investors, and with such a high-profile, aiming to show the 'new Russia'. Hell, Medvedev even took the trouble to appoint one of Russia's richest men to head it, Viktor Vekselberg, undoubtedly under the logic that since he already has so much money he wouldn't bother trying to steal a bit more.

Well I see I've been proved wrong.

I guess what's encouraging, is that it's been uncovered, and the guilty parties (at least some of them), will be punished.

Hopefully the money will end up back in Skolkovo somehow. That, and the arrest of the responsible may send a message out. Although, it seems the other technoparks in Russia are doing better at getting developed then Skolkovo is. Technopolis GS, there is Technopolis in Moscow, etc, and none of them have even remotely the amount of problems regarding corruption than Skolkovo, which is two for this technopark.

Well Vekselberg never had perfect reputation.

It seems that private technoparks are the way to go. Instead of finding ways how to spend federal funds private technoparks try to work with business and get private investors

Inter RAO, Russian energy major, introduces innovation to cut its costs

Inter RAO, one of Russia’s leading electrical energy companies with a broad international presence, announced last week that it is developing innovation technologies to cut its operation costs.

On the premises of the Kostroma Heat and Power Station in Central Russia, the energy giant has launched its innovation start-up called “Inter RAO – Coating Application Center.” This is the first project brought to fruition by Energy Without Borders, an R&D fund set up by Inter RAO back in 2011.

Nanoceramics technologies mastered in Siberia’s Omsk

Sibtochmash, an industrial developer in Omsk, in Siberia, is pushing its technology to manufacture nanoceramics-based parts of any complexity, portal Innovanews.ru reported.

Using their new proprietary method is said to enable the processing of ceramics, a fairly fragile material, into a nanomodified material strong enough to be used even in the defense sector.

For example, the Siberian company manufactures turbine blade rods, a kind of product that has never before been made from ceramics.

Igor Zinkin, the CEO of Sibtochmash, has strong faith in ceramics as a material of the future to be eagerly sought in the market.

The company is also developing a 3D printer to work with ceramics; the printer is currently being tested.

Russia moves to integrate Siberian radio electronics assets in new cluster

Roselectronica, the federal umbrella company for Russia’s radio electronics manufacturers, is setting up Electronica-Siberia, an R&D and production cluster bringing together four Siberian assets, Roselectronica announced.

The new cluster will feature three Novosibirsk-based radio electronics companies, including NPO Vostok, the Oksid radio component factory and the semiconductor instrument maker, as well as the Research Institute of Semiconductor Instruments in the neighboring city of Tomsk.

The three Novosibirsk assets will be integrated on one industrial platform, for which a new production complex is being built in the region, and the existing facilities are being revamped.

Renova subsidiary and Novosibirsk nanotech center team up for carbon material R&D

Energoprom, a sizable Russian industrial group which is part of international Renova Group run by Viktor Vekselberg, has agreed with SIGMA.Novosibirsk, a new nanotech center in Siberia, on joint implementation of new carbon material development projects, Delovoy Kvartal – Novosibirsk reported last week.

In addition, the partners are reportedly in talks over the setup of an engineering company that would focus on Energoprom’s main R&D areas, including the development of anode material for lithium-ion storage batteries, new graphite/carbon components for aerial contact wires used by electric public transport, large siliconized graphites for nuclear energy and metallurgic projects, and others.

Mordovia to pioneer Russia’s solar component production

A new high tech production line is being set up in Mordovia’s city of Saransk, in the mid-Volga area, to manufacture polycrystalline silicon, silicon wafers, photocells and solar modules for solar energy projects, the official website of the Mordovia government announced.

The new line will be launched on the premises of Electrovypryamitel, a local factory in Saransk.

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As well, in the news, Rusnano is contemplating opening up 2 - 3 more Nanotech centres if the three that are already set up show progress in effectiveness (in other words, if it is profitable). It seems in the last news above, they could very well end up being good, as Energoprom is massive and such contracts and deals would be good for the overall economy. It costs about $45M to open up one cluster, which is a lot. Rusnano should play smart though, as they already invested for 11 for such facilities in the country. Hopefully they will also open up facilities to be able to produce end goods besides just R&D.