The first day of the Forum – “INVESTING IN INNOVATION TO ACHIEVE MARKET LEADERSHIP” was opened by Vladimir Nikonov, Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Novosibirsk region – Minister of education, science and innovation policy, and Kendrick White, Founder & Managing Principal of MARCHMONT Capital Partners (Nizhny Novgorod).

Greeting the Forum’s participants, Vladimir Nikonov, stated that nowadays development of regional innovation potential is becoming one of the main national tasks. Innovation support infrastructure is actively being created in Novosibirsk region. Its main objective is to promote projects to the market and facilitate their commercialization.

Kendrick White expressed his opinion about Russia’s role in creating the innovation products. He stressed that “there is a high intellectual potential in Russia and Novosibirsk region. Russian raw material sources can become a good platform for innovation development as funds received after their sale can be spent on development of modern technologies and projects. It’s necessary to change investors approach and thinking. Innovation project development requires the period of 10 years. For private entrepreneurs who want their costs to be paid back quickly, this is too long period. In this case, the role of government is indispensable, because it can create the necessary mechanisms which would support innovators during the whole innovation period: from the idea stage to the stage of entering the market”.

Speakers of the round table “Government Support of Innovation Development”: Ilya Ponomarev, State Duma Deputy, Moscow; Kirill Bulatov, Head, Project Analysis Department, OJSC "Russian Venture Company"; Boris Ivanovich Ivlev, Director of the Novosibirsk regional Fund of Support of a Science and Innovation Activity and Kendrick White, Founder & Managing Principal, MARCHMONT Capital Partners.

Kirill Bulatov stated: “We should pay a careful attention not only to large “one billion ruble” projects, but to a dozen of to smaller ones worth of a total of the same one billion ruble, but having more chances to be realized. Novosibirsk region has a lot of prospects for further development in this direction”. According to Kirill Bulatov, more than 70 venture partners of Russian Venture Company Seed Fund are registered in Russia.

According to Boris Ivanovich Ivlev, Novosibirsk’s innovation infrastructure is being gradually created. The first technopark with the governmental support - Technopark “Novosibirsk” was created in 2006. Technopark of high technologies was built in Academgorodok ("Technopark of Novosibirsk Academgorodok"). Biotechnopark is coming soon in Koltsovo, requiring further investments. In 2008 regional venture fund was created. Several projects are being productively worked on. The exit from the projects is planned in 3 year period. About 60 projects were sent to “RUSNANO”. Interregional venture fund is being created together with “RUSNANO”.

Ilya Ponomarev stressed that we shouldn’t simply copy the international experience of forming innovation ecosystems. Nowadays there are many discussions devoted to the balance between science, education and business. Now the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation offers to focus on education and science in universities.

Ways of attracting investment into innovation projects at different development stages (from early stages to the IPO stage) was discussed during the second session of the Forum: “Round Table: Attraction of Investments for Technological Projects: Finance Sources, Funding Methodologies”.

During this session the following speakers took the floor: Vitaly Lazorin, CEO, Novstream Constructive Solutions spoke about early stage financing of innovation projects; Elena Kramarenko, Senior Manager, Capital Markets Group, PwC, Moscow about IPO of companies with a small, middle and large capitalization with the detailed analysis of alternative exchange trading marketplaces. According to PwC assessment, the most popular among Russian companies are Innovation and Growth Companies Sector and AIM. Кonstantin Khudyakov, Regional Exchange Center «MICEX – SIBERIA» made a report about MICEX innovation and investment market. “MICEX and ROSNANO signed an agreement on creating a new exchange sector - Innovation and Investment market based on Innovation and Growth Companies Sector (IGC), aiming at attracting investments in high-tech companies and companies with a small and middle capitalization.

The Forum’s program was continued by the speakers of the third session “R&D practices in Corporations”. Kendrick White’s presentation was devoted to large-scale enterprise modernization – using R&D Innovation to raise company valuation and attract investment capital. According to Kendrick White, the Government has to support commercial partnerships among academic, business and finance communities. Evgeny Akhpashev, Managing Consultant, BRANAN, Moscow explained the audience the process of innovation implementation and the main stages of creating innovations. Vitaly Sayapin, Branch Manager, INTEL Corporation – Novosibirsk and Alexander Avdeev, Director of Operations, INTEL Corporation – Novosibirsk stated that “Russia is one of the most successful regions for Intel research groups’ development”. This is connected with several factors, such as high competence in several fields of knowledge, talented developers and young specialists, competitive resources value and fast-growing market potential. Vitaly Lazorin, Expert, Russian PwC Technology & Innovation Center, Moscow in his presentation described the advantages of applying cloud technologies for business and prospects for R&D programs.

The second day of the Forum was devoted to commercialization of entrepreneurial innovation.
During the first workshop “Commercialization of Entrepreneurial Innovation. Market Driven Science” there were discussed successful practical experience in commercialization of innovation projects from regional universities, including Novosibirsk State University (Research University) experience of bridging the gap between innovator and managers and IP Protection. Boris Ivanovich Ivlev, Director of the Novosibirsk regional Fund of Support of a Science and Innovation Activity stated that human resources training is a very important issue along with forming innovation development strategy. There are 43-45 educational institutions and about 170 000 of students in Novosibirsk. Science, business and government should supplement each other. Today there are nine centers of innovation competence development in higher educational institutes. Vera Dmitrievna Markova, Doctor of Economic Science, Prof., Prorector of the Novosibirsk State University in Additional Education, Director of the Center of Additional Education NSU spoke about NSU’s program of innovation infrastructure development. Evgeny Akhpashev, Managing Consultant, BRANAN, Moscow shared the practical experience of R&D commercialization project management.

The participants of the second workshop “Best Practices in Innovation Cluster Development” were: Kendrick White, Kirill Bulatov, OJSC "Russian Venture Company", Daniel Satinsky, Founding Partner, the Russia Innovation Collaborative, USA, Marina Ivanovna Ananich, Deputy Minister of Education, Science and Innovation Policy of the Novosibirsk Region, Aleksander Yurevich Troshnev, General Director, Novosibirsk Regional Venture Investment Center, Dmitry Benidiktovich Verkhovod, Head of Novosibirsk Techno Park and Andrey Linyushin, Director, the Koltsovo Innovation Center, Novosibirsk. Kendrick White spoke about international and Russian best practices in innovation cluster development and Yaroslavl Roadmap 10-15-20.

Kirill Bulatov told the audience about Russian Venture Company initiatives and Infrastructure Investment Fund (RVC InfraFund) which started its work at the beginning of 2011. The key goal of RVC InfraFund is to develop the market of specialized services for high-tech companies to work and develop effectively, promote their products at local and foreign market. New infrastructure will provide innovation entrepreneurs with various kinds of services: marketing, finance, law, IP, dealing with investors and etc.

Marina Ivanovna Ananich made a detailed report on innovation project supporting tools of the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation Policy of Novosibirsk region and established regional innovation infrastructure. The main problem today is the absence of law that can regulate the IP rules. Nowadays clusters in aircraft industry, medical instrument making industry, IT are formed in Novosibirsk and one promising cluster in instrument making industry is being formed. Finland’s experience was used in forming of nine centers of innovation competence development in higher educational institutes. Marina Ananich stated: “Innovation (Technopark) ideology is a system of ideas about society development and functioning, base on the system of values – creating the Knowledge Economy”.

Aleksander Troshnev, General Director, Novosibirsk Regional Venture Investment Center spoke about NRVIC best practices. Novosibirsk Regional Venture Investment Center is now a venture partner of RVC, listing agent of MICEX and a service company of Technopark. “We are interested in software, medical technology and energy savings. We attract finances from private funds and business angels”. Aleksander Troshnev paid attention to some systematic problems in Novosibirsk region: IS, lack or misunderstanding of business model, misunderstanding of the process and rules of commercial financing.

Theу Forum’s program was continued by Innovators Support Programs workshop, devoted to Zvorykinsky Project, BIT Competition, Bortnik Fund Programs, Start, “UMNIK” Programs, «Lavrentiev`s Breakthrough», Innovators Support – Presidents Program “Innovation Business Manager” Novosibirsk State University. Nikolay Aleksandrovich Badulin, General Director, OJSC Innovation Management Company “FiBr”, president, Non-profit Partnership "Business Angels of Siberia", Tomsk presented BIT Competition: “In 2010 there were sent 113 applications, 76 projects registered, 210 participants, 18 finalists. The prize fund was 400 000 rub. + Winners participation in the Start program final of the Fund of Support of a Science and Innovation Activity. Anton Melnikov, Head of «Lavrentiev`s Breakthrough», Novosibirsk presented the main objectives of organization, that attracted more than 200 people and 102 projects.

Closing workshop was conducted by Kendrick White and devoted to the Proof of Concept Centers activities.

The night cocktail party and informal communication of experts and participants closed the event.

The total number of visitors of the Forum was more than 200 people, including business leaders, entrepreneurs, representatives of the political elite, business angels, investors, scientists and specialists of international and Russian (Tomsk, Novosibirsk, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Barnaul, Kemerovo) companies, higher educational institutes representatives.