ASU Participates in Caspian International Technological Forum

Today the Caspian International Technological Forum has been opened at Astrakhan Kremlin. Reps of business companies, universities, ministries, governmental agencies, and other institutions are taking part in it.

Anatoly Chubais (President of the RUSNANO – the Russian Corporation of Nanotechnology), Sergey Polyakov (General Manager of the Fund for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises in Science and Technology (FASIE)), as well as top officials of Astrakhan Region – Alexander Zhilkin (Governor of Astrakhan Region), Konstantin Markelov (Astrakhan Region’s Prime Minister), Alexander Klykanov (Astrakhan Region’s Parliament Chairperson), Elina Polyanskaya (Astrakhan Region’s Minister of Economic Development) – have been distinguished guests at the event. The Forum aims to advance to a new level of communication, which would meet the current demands of real business.

The exposition of Astrakhan State University included 11 projects in such fields as technologies of new materials and mechanical engineering, ICT, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, and environment-friendly technologies. Their authors, as well as our University Administration, have demonstrated those developments to the distinguished guests. Prof. Galina Stefanova, First Vice Rector of ASU, pointed out that realization of those projects would contribute to modernization of the regional economy considerably. The presented developments, as she remarks, have been conceived and realized at the Technopark of ASU thanks to support of the Fund for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises in Science and Technology. Astrakhan Region leads in selection of innovative projects for this Fund, as well as in arrangement of sites to implement them. As for Mr. Chubais, he wished all the experimental specimens developed on the base of biological resources became famous brands of Astrakhan Region.

The Plenary Session “Issues of Technological Development of Caspian Littoral Countries: Partnership under New Conditions” has taken place at the Armory Museum in Astrakhan Kremlin. The delegates were greeted by Governor Alexander Zhilkin, who has remarked that the Forum has become an outcome of a very close cooperation between the Caspian littoral countries over the last 10-15 years.

In his turn, Mr. Chubais has pointed out that the RUSNANO Corporation also interacts with Caspian littoral countries actively. “As we’re a large high-tech company, our main task is to find partners, and here we see a good beginning”, he said.

As for Anton Shashkin from the Federal Ministry of Education and Science, he spoke a lot about financial and non-financial backing of applied science. Addressing management of various institutions (first of all, universities), he said that projects of applied character are now funded mostly at the expense of governmental budget investments. That is why it is essential to attract outside funding sources to sponsor such developments. Mr. Shashkin has also told about the current federal programs to back applied researches.

Speeches by other participants of the Plenary Session also concerned technological development of the Caspian littoral region.

The event agenda also includes roundtable talks, press conferences, seminars, etc. The Regional Festival of Student Science is to take place tomorrow.

Russian original information source: T.Yu. Gavrilkina (University Web Resources Information Support Laboratory of ASU)

Russian original photo source: K.R. Ekshembeeva (University Web Resources Information Support Laboratory of ASU)