What is a technology park? Technoparks in Russia are the basis for the development of innovative technologies. How can a third party get into the technopark?

Source: Vedomosti, PROJECT MANAGER "TROITSKY TECHNOPARK" ALEXEY GOSTOMELSKY

What is a technopark

A technology park is a complex of infrastructure facilities, the main goal of which is to motivate companies and people to create innovative technologies, as well as help both of them implement these innovations into successful products.

The main components of the technology park are companies and teams that create innovations; universities supplying technical personnel, the shortage of which we now feel; and management personnel ( professional managers capable of bringing an innovative technology or product to the international market). One of the key components of a technology park is scientific institutes, for example the Academy of Sciences, which can be a technology supplier and actively participate in the development of innovation. They are also financial mechanisms that help obtain funds for different stages of the innovation process. Further, this is marketing assistance to innovative companies in entering the Russian and international markets. And finally, this is the administrative infrastructure - offices, legal and accounting support.

There can be two methods of supporting innovation - the so-called captive and non-captive. The captive model is typical for the initial stage of innovation development: it is a model for creating innovative products and technologies tailored to the needs of a specific customer. That is, some large company comes to the conclusion that it needs this or that new technology, and begins to select and finance companies that can solve this problem. An example of Russian captive financing - oil industry, RAO UES.

A classic example of such an international company is Intel, which, with the help of its foundation, looks for interesting technologies and is constantly updated innovation processes. Thus, by investing funds that are relatively small on Intel's scale, the company gains access to the latest promising developments in the information technology segment.

Various venture funds created and already operating in Russia operate on a non-captive model. This model involves a fundamentally new solution to some existing problem and the creation of a sustainable and competitive product, perhaps even a new market.

I hope that the technology park will become a platform that will allow us to match demand with supply. In the innovation market, the supply is represented by small teams and innovative companies, and the infrastructure of the technology park makes it possible to receive assistance in financing, recruiting and entering the market. Demand is generated by large companies, small and medium business and government orders.

Help companies

In Russia, the main problem hindering the development of innovation is the lack of success stories. Foreign company, when exploring the possibility of placing an innovative order or purchasing a product, pays attention not only to the country’s investment ratings, but also to the number of successful innovative entrepreneurs that have emerged in it. In Russia, such companies can be counted on one hand - these are, in particular, ABBYY, Kaspersky, SPIRIT. The 1C company, already mentioned here, is a huge national brand, but outside of Russia it is unknown due to the local nature of the product, so it cannot be cited as an example of success.

I will talk about how technology parks can help small companies in creating a success story. We found many teams with interesting ideas, but do not know how to get funding and develop the project. The technopark must bear educational function and help these people access funding and package their ideas. In addition, the technology park should provide support in the field of management and strategy development, and selection of a management team. It should provide infrastructure and marketing assistance. A small company whose main sales market is outside Russia does not have the opportunity to open an office in America or Europe, but the technology park gives it such a chance.

Troitsk Technopark included in its pool of companies both the largest (RBC, R-Style, HKK, IT, Borlas) and small innovative companies. It is planned that our base universities will be the Higher School of Economics, which is building its faculty in Troitsk, and Physics and Technology. Within two years, we received the status of a business incubator, allowing us to launch projects from scratch, and Troitsk received the status of a science city. The concept of the project was developed jointly with the companies that took part in our pool.

Trinity Technopark is one of the co-organizers of the “Open Doors to Silicon Valley” conference. Its essence is that every year 30-40 Russian startups are brought to America and a certain technological bridge is built between the Russian venture industry and Western venture capitalists and IT giants, such as Google, IBM, HP, Asset Management Alloy Ventures. As part of the conference, sections of master classes on creating own companies And venture funds, and on the other hand, there is an opportunity for direct acquaintance with new Russian technologies. Such conferences are one of the most important incentives for the development of innovation.

Organizational difficulties

While organizing the technopark, we encountered a number of difficulties. First, due to the large number of participants, it is sometimes more difficult to achieve consensus. Secondly, the work process is not streamlined and bureaucratic, since it involves a large number of government departments - municipal and regional authorities, the Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. The third problem is that investors are clearly divided into two categories: those for whom a technology park is a purely infrastructure project in which they need to invest money as real estate, which can later be rented out or sold, and those for whom they are interested innovation in its purest form and who doesn’t care where the companies created on their basis will be located geographically.

We plan to start cooperation with High school economy and Phystech, support successful startups, of which, according to our estimates, there will be about 50 in the coming years. We are going to organize the relocation of representatives of large IT companies to us (some of the small ones are already in Troitsk) and expand the partner network in large countries to promote technologies of technopark resident startups to the international market.

We propose systematically holding seminars where representatives of new companies could get acquainted with the experience of those who have already achieved success. A technology park could become a logical infrastructure. It seems to me that all technology parks could use unified system representative offices in major international technology countries and thus achieve convergence. That is, they will not act alone, but together promote the products of their residents and look for new partners through a single infrastructure. The state could stimulate technology parks not only with investments in infrastructure, but also with innovative, albeit small, orders. These orders would help create innovative companies using the previously mentioned captive model.

Today, technology parks are gaining popularity in Russia: there are now about 160 of them, and in the next 10 years the number of technology parks and technopolises may double.

In Moscow alone there are about 35 technology parks and technopolises (data from the investment portal). The most famous of them is. The editors of Vesti.Real Estate worked together with the managing partner of the company “Financial and Organizational Consulting” (FOK) Moisei Furshchik to understand what a technology park is and what it is needed for.

Where did technology parks originate?

The history of technology parks itself begins in the USA at Stanford University. After World War II, the university had difficulties with financing, which rent helped solve. The university owned a large plot of land, but could not sell it. Then the dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Professor Frederick Terman, suggested that the management lease the land for a long term as an office park. Moreover, only high-tech companies could act as tenants of the park. Thus, the university began to generate income, and its graduates could find employment in the park.

Later, Professor Terman's idea became the beginning of Silicon Valley (The Father of Silicon Valley). Today, Silicon Valley residents include global giant companies such as Apple, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, General Electric, Google and many others.

Technoparks and technopolises are specialized property and land complexes in the city that have the appropriate official status and provide profitable terms conducting research, production and innovation activity for its residents. Residents of technology parks can rent premises at attractive prices and receive tax benefits, gain access to equipment and services, as well as consulting assistance. Each technology park has an industry specialization: microelectronics, IT, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, biotechnology, nanotechnology and others, according to the Moscow investment portal.

In the 70s, technology parks began to appear in Europe. Here, in addition to the then usual technology parks, the function of a technology business incubator was added (production premises in which innovative companies could locate their production). The first technology parks in Russia appeared in the 90s. As a rule, these were university departments or academic campuses. Tomsk Science and Technology Park can be called the first technology park in Russia.

Uniting innovative business

In Russia, the concept of “technopark” is somewhat vague. IN regulations contains three different definitions, not counting the terms “industrial technology park” and “technopark high technology", says the managing partner of the company "Financial and Organizational Consulting" (FOK).

But to generalize, we can say that a technology park is a collection of real estate objects created for running small and medium-sized businesses in the field of high technologies, which is managed by a single management company and may include land plots, office buildings, laboratory and production facilities, engineering facilities, transport and social infrastructure.

The key function of the technology park is the concentration of small innovative companies in a single real estate complex. In such a situation, synergy can be achieved through the placement of shared equipment, certification centers, engineering, prototyping, export support and other elements of interest to various residents. Besides, important factor is the very atmosphere of the technology park, the active communication of its residents, even those who do not have direct cooperative ties with each other.

Accordingly, the key task management company is to create such a creative environment and fill the technology park with service functions. And then the object becomes really in demand from innovative business. This means that its space is being actively filled with targeted resident tenants, the expert notes.

At the same time, the activities of residents in the field of high technologies can be quite diverse, including scientific research, development and implementation of technologies into production. As a rule, the longer innovation chains are formed within a technology park, the more efficient its operation.

According to the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications, a third of technology parks in Russia specialize in IT, a quarter in high-tech chemistry, 16% in nanotechnology, 5% in biohoney, 2% in the nuclear industry and space, 19% in other areas.

What should a technology park be like and how much does it cost?

Key requirements for the construction and location of technology parks are contained in the National Standard. In particular, we're talking about about the size of the technology park: its total area must be at least 5 thousand square meters. Also, the technology park must have a separate territory of at least 3.5 hectares. This area may be less than 3.5 hectares if the building density of the technology park territory exceeds the minimum value established by the authorities of the constituent entity of the Russian Federation for technology parks. The technology park must have access points to all communications.

As for investments in such projects, their amount can vary quite widely. First of all, the volume financial investments three factors determine: the first is the scale of the technology park itself; second, a technology park is created from scratch (construction of new buildings) or existing facilities are used for it; third – equipment that will be placed on the territory of the park. The most typical range of required investments is 50–500 million rubles, the expert says.

Will this be in demand?

Last year in Russia, according to the Association of Clusters and Technology Parks, there were 157 technology parks, including 65 industrial technology parks, of which 49 were operating, 16 were being created.

At the same time, the vast majority of technology parks are concentrated in large cities, notes Moisei Furshchik. But small cities can successfully create such facilities. The key factor here is the presence of scientific and technical potential and/or demand for applied developments. Therefore, technology parks may well operate in science cities or in populated areas where large high-tech industries are located (including in single-industry towns). Another thing is that in such cases the scale of the technology park will most likely be noticeably smaller than in a large city, but its efficiency may be even higher.

The current popularity of technology parks is largely caused by state policy in this direction, explains Moisei Furshchik. The development of innovation is set among the benchmarks for governors; there is a whole range of instruments for federal support for the creation of technology parks, including subsidies from the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications. The Russian Ministry of Education and Science also supports this topic.

“As a result, more than half of the created technology parks are state-owned, that is, they are managed by universities or companies controlled by regional authorities. Typically, in such technology parks, specialized residents have preferential rental rates,” says the managing partner of the FOC.

But there are also a significant number of private technology parks. Most often, they are created either by developers commercial real estate, or large industrial enterprises with unused areas. Typically, in such cases, potential residents are subject to less stringent requirements, but there may not be a preferential rental rate.

Then, for innovative companies, the advantages that come to the fore include the availability of specialized and small areas, convenient location, expanded opportunities for cooperation with other residents or with large enterprise– the organizer of the technology park, as well as equipment for collective use and other additional services. Moreover, it is interesting that many state support measures also apply to non-state technology parks, which is often not fully known even to the management companies themselves.

In terms of benefits for city residents, these include additional highly skilled jobs and tax revenues, increased opportunities for entrepreneurship and innovation, improved city image and retention of promising youth.

In the coming years, we can expect both the emergence of new technology parks and the expansion of existing ones.

“Over the horizon of 7-10 years, we can expect an approximately doubling of their number. This is facilitated by both increased government support and the ongoing restructuring of large industries (freeing up space through automation and outsourcing some functions),” the expert believes.

Also, the growth of technology parks will be facilitated by the growing awareness among small innovative companies of the fact that placement in specialized real estate complexes increases the efficiency of their work and attractiveness in the eyes of highly qualified employees.

Photo: Press services of the Mayor and the Moscow Government. Evgeniy Samarin

Implants, batteries, navigation equipment, lasers, surgical complexes, water purification installations, optical systems for launch vehicles and even a 3D-printed thyroid gland are just some of what Moscow technology parks produce. For the city, this is an important contribution to the economy, and it supports such areas with benefits.

In 2014, there were six technology parks in the capital. At that time, all specialized territories occupied 503.6 thousand square meters of premises. They employed 450 residents, who created 6.7 thousand jobs.

Today Moscow is one of the leaders among European cities in terms of the number of specialized territories. The status was assigned to 24 technology parks and two technology cities. More than 1.4 thousand enterprises have been opened in them, employing almost 32 thousand people.

Management companies and residents of technology parks and technopolises receive benefits, but the development of such territories is beneficial not only to them. The city also benefits, receiving efficient and high-tech enterprises with jobs for specialists highly qualified. This is a plus not only for the image, but primarily for the economy.

What is a technology park?

Technopolis was created in December 2012 on the territory of the largest. Manufacturing companies can rent premises ready for installation of equipment with all utilities, and those working in the field of microelectronics and biopharmaceuticals are provided with “clean rooms”. The technopolis has a congress center, a logistics center, temporary storage warehouses and a Federal post customs service Russia.

Space and thyroid gland on 3D-printer

Technopolis "Skolkovo" is one of the largest investment projects not only on a city scale, but also on a national scale. Its area is 400 hectares. There is a technology park, a university and a business school, and scientific work combined with the creation and development.

More than 80 Skolkovo residents are engaged in biomedicine, energy and nuclear technologies, developments in the IT field and in the space field. It was here that scientists printed a mouse thyroid gland on a 3D bioprinter, and in the near future they plan to print human organs from their own stem cells.

Lasers for doctors and GLONASS

Technopark "Polyus" is Russia's largest research and production center in the field of quantum electronics. Semiconductor and solid-state lasers, laser gyroscopes and navigation devices based on them are developed here. Polyus supplies its products to India, Australia, China and Israel.

Medical devices are also made here. Among them is a device for the treatment of varicose veins, erysipelas, arthrosis, and complications after breast removal. Another development of the technology park is needed for the treatment of uroandrological diseases and impotence.

An ophthalmic surgical complex with a beam lamp is currently being tested. He will treat cataracts and glaucoma using a laser, that is, without surgery. Polyus is also developing a laser gas analyzer for non-invasive diagnosis of bronchial asthma, diabetes, kidney disease, and cancer in the early stages. Crystals for lasers, which are used in PET tomography examinations, are also grown here.

Installations for purifying water from open reservoirs are already ready for mass production. Such a device with remote control can purify from two to 240 cubic meters of water per day and prepare drinking water according to SanPiN standards.

The technology park employs more than five thousand people with an average salary of 93.9 thousand rubles. It has its own synchrotron-neutron research complex, a center for molecular and cellular biology, and a nuclear medical center. The volume of investment in the development of the enterprise over the past five years has amounted to about 30 billion rubles.

Why is it profitable for companies to work in a technology park?

Moscow provides innovative enterprises with economic support. For example, technology parks receive subsidies of up to 100 million rubles for infrastructure development, and three times more for technology cities. Special benefits are also provided.

Who hasright to benefits?

To receive tax benefits, technology parks must have the following indicators:

— the volume of investment over five years is at least 50 million rubles (excluding VAT) per hectare of land area;

— revenue volume—at least 600 million rubles (excluding VAT) per year per hectare;

— the size of the wage fund is at least 200 million rubles per year per hectare;

— the average monthly salary of employees is 20 percent higher than the average monthly income in Moscow.

In addition, technology parks must use at least 80 percent of the building area for the main activities of tenant enterprises - production, scientific research and developments. There should also be a center for collective use of equipment.

There are requirements for industrial parks.

Anchor residents of specialized territories must also meet certain criteria. Among them, being on tax accounting in Moscow, non-use simplified diagram taxation, absence of debts on taxes and fees and others. The entire list can be found.

More information about the requirements and procedure for obtaining status can be found here. Applications for status assignment industrial complex and a technology park can also be submitted through the Moscow investment portal.

Why do children need technology parks?

The first children's technology park in Moscow was opened in May on the territory of the Mosgormash technology park. A branch of the city of masters “Masterslavl”, a lecture hall, a co-working space and a center for youth innovative creativity have been created here. Children will be trained in three areas: astronautics, geoinformatics and robotics.

— “Quantorium” — started working in the capital in the fall. In addition to classrooms, it has workshops and laboratories, a multimedia lecture hall, an area for communication and relaxation, a sports block with swings, a basketball hoop and a table tennis table. About 1.2 thousand children from 13 to 17 years old will study according to a specially developed Quantorium program, attend on-site lessons, joint classes with colleges and develop their own projects. They will learn to design and assemble copters, study the main directions of alternative energy and the principles of creating modern ones based on it. Vehicle, synthesize and modify at micro- and nanolevels.

In the future, “cities of professions” should become centers additional education. In a playful way, children will master Newest technologies, and after training they will be able to sign a contract with leading companies. Such programs help them decide on a profession in advance and make the learning process interesting and understandable.

Who else will receive the status of a technology park?

The Moscow government and investors are discussing construction in the TiNAO. They can be built in Sosensky, Shcherbinka and Troitsk. will be created in Molzhaninov. First, a production complex will be built here, and at the second stage - a research and laboratory complex.

IN next year will appear in Moscow. The Itelma company will build an engineering and laboratory building with a sports and recreation complex. Here they will begin not only to develop electronic devices for diesel engines, but also to produce, test and certify them.

A new production complex will be created on the territory of the Indigo industrial park in the village of Nikolo-Khovanskoye. It is planned to be put into operation at the end of 2017. They will serve here pumping units different models, as well as assemble them and additionally complete them. The park itself will be completed by the end of 2018.

Today, the term “technopark” is becoming more and more common. It means a real estate format in the form of a self-sufficient platform, where resident companies are provided with a full range of services for organization and development, from registration to entry into big business. A similar format appeared in the West 30 years ago, and today it is becoming increasingly popular and in demand in Russia.

Who needs technology parks and why?

Technopark is a platform that is aimed at private, industrial and scientific organizations, as well as developers. It is young businesses and startups that are interested in finding inexpensive premises where they can get full service and gain support for the development of the project. Often the gap from the development of a project to its launch is too long, and for many developers speed of response is important so that the final product does not become outdated. The creation of technology parks is aimed at solving several problems:

• Transform knowledge and inventions into technology.
• Transform technologies into commercial products.
• Transfer technology to industry.
• To help knowledge-intensive companies in their formation.
• Support knowledge-intensive businesses.

In essence, technology parks are responsible for the formation of that economic environment, which will help ensure sustainable development scientific, technological and industrial entrepreneurship, the creation of new small and medium-sized enterprises. Which technology park should I choose premises in? It depends on what range of services and what tasks a particular company performs. It is also important who is the anchor tenant in a particular technology park.

Why do technology parks appear?

Russia's strategic goal is the transition of the economy to an innovative type of development, which requires the creation of appropriate infrastructure. Favorable conditions for the formation of innovative activities are created in technology parks. They ensure the development of high-tech technologies and companies, selection and support of promising scientific projects. The following types of technology parks are distinguished:

• university,
• regional,
• industrial,
• network,
• based on science cities.

The emergence and intensive growth of technology parks is associated with a variety of reasons:

• resources for industrial development are gradually being exhausted. As a consequence, it is necessary to restore the competitiveness and profitability of these industries by increasing their knowledge intensity;
• there is a need for new technologies and new knowledge-intensive industries;
• it is necessary to overcome the autonomy of science and production and make them interested partners. Technology parks create all the conditions for long-term interaction.

Thanks to the creation and operation of technology parks, the economic level in the country will be leveled, productive forces will be located more rationally, and some economically less developed regions will become full-fledged scientific and industrial zones with sufficient high level life.

Features of technology parks

A technology park is, first of all, a piece of real estate that is equally convenient for companies of different types to use. But this is a self-sufficient facility in which resident organizations can work and develop. Enterprises and organizations are provided with:

• production sites,
• premises for installation and debugging of equipment,
• office rooms,
• collective service systems (Internet, telephony, personnel service, security),
• studio space,
• laboratories,
• managerial support.

In essence, a technology park is an economic entity that has complete independence and its own financial component. Residents can take advantage of preferential rental rates and preferential taxation:

• property tax rate – 0%,
• profit rate – 13.5% (valid for 10 years from the moment the company was assigned resident status).

Modern technology parks provide wide range services: cleaning, legal services, management services accounting, IT services, hotel reservations, transport and logistics services, event organization. All conditions have been created for residents to effectively conduct business:

• business incubator: here organizations are trained and receive information support;
• infrastructure (business and entertainment): it is designed to ensure the comfort of employees;
• holding events (on scientific and business topics),
• shared use center (equipment and professional services, which can be used by all tenants of premises in the technology park).

The main function of a technology park in Russia is to increase the competitiveness of business, no matter what industry it belongs to.

conclusions

Technology parks are an important component modern economy, ensuring the creation of an environment in which scientific, technological and manufacturing entrepreneurship. You can rent an office in the technopark together with production premises. In addition, these sites have all the conditions to support start-up companies.

The approximate cost of renting premises in technology parks is as follows.

Despite the fact that technology parks have existed for more than half a century, at the moment there is no generally accepted definition or established classification. The International Association of Technology Parks at the beginning of 2002 proposed the following definition:

"A technology park is an organization managed by specialists whose main goal is to increase the well-being of the local community through the promotion of an innovative culture, as well as the competitiveness of innovative business and scientific organizations. To achieve these goals, the technology park stimulates and manages the flow of knowledge and technology between universities, research institutes, companies and markets. It makes it easier for innovative companies to create and grow through incubation processes and spin-off processes. The technology park provides other services in addition to high-quality space."

Such a broad definition of a technology park was intended to embrace all models existing in the world. Thus this definition sets a minimum set of standards and requirements for an applicant for the title “technology park”. The International Association of Technoparks especially notes the equivalence of such concepts as “technological park”, “technofloor”, “technological area”, “research park” and “science park”. In the UK they usually use the term “science park”, in the USA - “research park”, in Russia - “technopark”.

Organizations designed to stimulate the creation of technology parks on their territory define them more specifically. Thus, the Queensland Innovation Council proposes the following formulation:

"The technology park is entity, created to make more adequate use of scientific and technological resources to improve the economic base of the region. The mission of the technology park is to stimulate regional development, deindustrialization, as well as simplify the implementation of commercial and industrial innovations. The activities of the technology park enrich the scientific and/or technical culture of the region, create jobs and added value."

Some researchers, in addition to the technology parks themselves, also distinguish their subtypes:
- technological incubators,
- science/research parks,
- technological areas.

Technology incubators specialize in the commercialization of scientific and commercial developments. Even in the case of financial independence, as a rule, they are located within the existing technology park. Scientific/research parks have closer connections with universities than technology parks and they concentrate highly educated personnel and large volumes of high-tech research. Technology hubs are a cluster of interdependent businesses operating in a common and/or related industry and located in the same geographic region. These enterprises share a common infrastructure, labor and service markets, and face similar opportunities and threats.

There are several organizational forms, in which technology parks operate successfully. A university or research institute may be the sole founder of a technology park. A more common option is when the park has from 2 to 20 founders. This governance mechanism is much more complex than a single-founder mechanism, but is considered more effective, especially in terms of access to various sources of financing. In the case of several founders, either a joint venture or a limited liability company is formed. In this case, the contribution of each of the founders depends on his resources and usually consists of the following:

• university - technology transfer, land, working capital;
• local administration - land, infrastructure, grants;
• bank - capital investments, financial expertise, venture capital;
• industrial enterprises - land, infrastructure, capital investments, project examination.

However, regardless of the form of organization, a successfully functioning technology park can make a significant contribution to the economy of the region due to:

• Stimulating economic growth in the region
• Diversify the local economy, making it more resilient
• Development successful companies small and medium business
• Increase in local budget revenues.

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