The symbiosis of science, innovation, and commerce is needed for the university to achieve international level in the rapidly developing Industry 4.0. South Ural State University has been working on a strategy for transferring breakthrough technologies through small, innovative businesses founded at the university for 7 years now. The manufacture of educational equipment for the WorldSkills Russia national championship; graphics for the Booba cartoon and the films Flight Crew (Ekipazh) and Attraction (Prityazhenie); small-batch manufacture of single-line, shut off ball valves with a dual seal, released in the Chinese markets – these are all just a small part of the work SUSU has done with its small, innovative businesses. Deputy Head of the SUSU Office of Science and Innovative Affairs, Yevgeniy Iogolevich, tells us about the advantages of these relationships.
– Yevgeniy Vladimirovich, why does society need these small, innovative businesses?
– SUSU began to found small, innovative businesses from the middle of 2010 when Federal Law #207 on the creation of business entities within universities to implement the results of intellectual activity came into power and allowed universities to be one of the owners of such companies. The main goal of such businesses is work tied to commercialization of scientific developments. It’s great when young researchers make discoveries, defend their candidate and doctoral theses, but modern society has its rules. Society is not interested in theory – it is interested in the applied meaning of scientific discoveries. We live in the century of the fourth scientific and technological revolution and use all gadgets possible which make our lives easier and affect its quality and dynamics. One example of helpful scientific innovations is the biometric passport or taxi dispatch. The developers of the world-famous taxi application, Lyft (USA), are past students of SUSU who, in their time, actively participated in SUSU’s innovative activities and received support from the UMNIK Fund for Assisting Innovation. This example clearly shows the transfer of technologies, that is, the transfer of knowledge, which was born within the walls of our university, to the country’s economy, so that it developed just as successfully as science within our university.
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– How can businesses make it to the list of SUSU innovative businesses?
– You can come to innovative studies in our university in different ways. The first approach is more fundamental, but less fast. I mean here the path in which a scientific school or collection of authors first develops a scientific topic thoroughly, registers rights to intellectual property in the form of a patent or evidence on computer programs, and then starts commercializing their project on the market. In this case, the author of the invention speaks with the SUSU Office of Scientific and Innovative Affairs where they help him create a legal entity and attract financing with the help of participation in various federal programs in the vein of the Russian Venture Company, the Fund for Supporting the Development of Small Forms of Business in the Scientific and Technological Sphere, the Skolkovo Fund, and others.
However, why hide it, in any business the most important thing is speed and courage to make risky decisions. This works better with those young startup founders who, maybe, will never defend their doctor’s dissertation, but are entrepreneurs in their soul. The main thing that they have is the skills they received in the main academic process or in post-graduate studies. We can suggest to them participation in a huge number of state programs: “You, Entrepreneur”, “Generation S”, and in others, including those within the 5-100 project at our university. These guys understand that continuing to walk hand in hand with the university, they will gain unique competitive advantages which are inaccessible to other, no less ambitious contemporaries.
– Are there any additional advantages from partnership with SUSU?
– The main bonus that small innovative business get from this is strong intellectual potential. The advantages don’t end with help in finding financing. There are also the opportunities of collaborating with large corporate giants, the use of SUSU’s well-known brand, and the university’s scientific and technical infrastructure – high-tech equipment of the scientific research centers, international laboratories, the possibility of using a supercomputer, and also the inclusion of departments of the Higher School and Institutes when solving one intellectual task or another.
– Are there some kind of criteria for partnering with SUSU?
– As a rule, those who studied at our university or worked with the university on a scientific project understand the possibilities behind the abbreviation SUSU. We happily create small, innovative businesses with our partners and receive, as a rule, a colossal synergistic effect. But that doesn’t happen with everyone who comes to us. We value the university’s name and carefully verify the possibilities and business reputation of the second cofounder. We analyze how competitive the future partner’s proposition is with analogous solutions on the market, if their business plan and market entry strategies are thought out, where will the future business be located, how many people will be in its staff, and some other important moments.
– What kind of results have small, innovative businesses had?
– Today there are 68 companies founded at SUSU, of which the university has a share of 25-50 %. In 2016 the overall revenue from small innovative businesses and the volume of work completed at within the university’s innovative infrastructure was 1,048,000,000 rubles. More than 150 jobs were created. The overall volume of funds received by the university from the completion of scientific research and design work in 2016 was more than 660 million rubles. But the main thing to be proud of is the quality achievements of the small innovative businesses. The company Regional Engineering Center of Additive and Laser Technologies works actively with the RVC Fund and has a full pool of contracts for tens of millions of rubles with companies like Proton Perm Motors (Proton Permskiye Motory), subsidiaries of Rosatom, and different large companies.
The manufacturing group UralArm entered the international market: they presented a prototype of their product (single-line, shut off ball valves with a dual seal) in the Chinese technopark, signed a framework agreement, and at this time are forming an international patent.
The company “Uchtech-Profi” completed the installation of academic equipment for the international contest Young Professionals for WorldSkills Russia. One more interesting project was presented by the company Standup Innovations (Stendap Innovatsiy) – various models of interactive sandboxes for kindergartens, which is already being sold in all regions of Russia. The company Grid-Engineering and Render-Firma took part in the creation of graphics for such well-known films as Flight Crew (Ekipazh), Icebreaker (Ledokol), Attraction (Prityazhenie) and cartoons Booba (on the Carousel television channel) and Nikita Kozhemyaka. I have listed just a few examples.
– The results are impressive. What prospects for development do you see?
– We will become equal to initiatives on the federal level – first off all to the National Technological Initiative, declared by the president in December 2014. We’ll take guidance from such prospective areas of economic development as Autonet, EnergyNet, FoodNet, TechNet, SafeNet and others. That is, from projects tied to additive technologies; flexible, robotized manufacturing systems; digital simulation; and quantum communications. At this time, our team is working with the Ministry of Economic Development and the Minister of Information Technology and Telecommunication to develop a road map for developing the National Technological Initiative (NTI) in the Chelyabinsk region. In the near future, this document will be presented to the governor of the Chelaybinsk Region, B.A.Dubrovskiy, and, if he approves it, additional possibilities will open up for companies founded with SUSU’s participation.