Sergei Sobyanin: Technoparks beccame flagships of innovation development in Moscow

Kalibr is one of the largest high-tech industry sites supported by the city. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin have visited the technopark.

Sergei Sobyanin and Mikhail Mishustin talked with entrepreneurs who are residents of the technopark, as well as with students who are participants in the I'm In (Ya v Dele) youth entrepreneurship educational program.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin specified that the мсп.рф website helps to find information about business support in any part of Russia. One can also choose a mentor there. Moreover, My Business centers are open in 430 locations throughout the country. Their experts are always ready to tell what kind of support they provide to entrepreneurs in a particular region. In addition, Russia boasts 250 innovative technology research centers helping to find programs to conduct researches.

51 technoparks are currently operating in Moscow (including seven investment projects to establish technoparks). The sites house 2,200 companies employing over 72,000 people.

“We decided that the whole of Moscow, including all the city enterprises, has to be an innovation center. Moscow companies are engaged in innovation in one way or another. Considering a great number of universities, technoparks, technopolises and small businesses engaged in innovation, we decided to unite them and develop a city of innovation,” Sergei Sobyanin said.

The municipal measures to support technoparks include benefits on income, land, and property tax, as well as reduced rental rate. In total, these benefits reduce the burden of regional taxes by up to 25 per cent.

Since 2016, investments in the development of Moscow technoparks have exceeded 80 billion rubles. More than nine rubles of private investment account for one ruble of tax breaks.

“One in seven Russian small and medium-sized businesses operates in Moscow; there are almost 900,000 companies in total. More than half of employees in Moscow is working for SMEs or are self-employed comprising 3 million and 1.3 million people respectively. Entrepreneurs work in all sectors of the city economy. But recently, their influence in high tech has been growing. As a result, Moscow technoparks have become flagships of the innovation development,” Sergei Sobyanin wrote on his Telegram channel. 

Technopark residents can take advantage of city and national programs to support small and medium-sized businesses, including preferential loans, guarantees, grants and subsidies.

In 2022 alone, the Moscow Government provided support to more than 16,500 small and medium-sized businesses (including technopark residents). Over 10,000 entrepreneurs have got national support. The total amount of financing attracted by business thanks to the provided support measures exceeded 339.5 billion rubles.

Sergei Sobyanin added that Moscow companies can contact i.moscow platform for support. It helps entrepreneurs find partners and potential customers, conclude contracts and learn about support measures. Tens of thousands of companies have already been registered in the Moscow Innovation Cluster, from state corporations to innovative businesses.

After visiting the Kalibr technopark, Mikhail Mishustin held a meeting of the Government Commission on the development of SMEs.

Kalibr: from plant to technopark

The Kalibr technopark is located in the Ostankinsky District in the north-east of Moscow (9 Godovikova Street) on 11.5 hectares.

The history of this production site began in 1932. Back then, Kalibr, a developer and manufacturer of precision measuring instruments, was founded.

Now the plant has been transformed into a production site specializing in the development of information, telecommunications and additive technologies, unmanned vehicles, instrumentation and metalworking, creative industries and hydrogen energy.

In 2015, Kalibr became a technopark gaining benefits on income and land tax.

In 2015–2017, the owners of the technology park implemented several infrastructure development projects. For example, production and shared infrastructure facilities have been reconstructed, a number of engineering systems and a gas boiler house have been modernized.

In 2018–2020, the Kalibr technopark completed one of the biggest projects in Moscow to expand production facilities by constructing a production and laboratory building with an area of 37,100 square meters. It was erected on the site of an unfinished industrial building, the construction of which was stopped in the early 1990s.

As a result, the total area of the technopark has increased by more than one and a half times, from 56,000 to 92,000 square meters. The project investment has exceeded 2.8 billion rubles.

In addition to high-quality production facilities, residents and tenants of the technopark can take advantage of the shared infrastructure, which includes a business center, data center, conference room, meeting rooms, co-working spaces, as well as a cafe and a universal sports ground.

In addition, under the sponsorship of the Moscow Government, the Kalibr children's technopark was established in 2018. Students aged 14 to 18 work on virtual and augmented reality, 3D modeling, computer animation, and motion capture projects.

This year, several more buildings with a total area of 10,000 square meters (Kalibr-Tekhno) are to be included in the technopark. The work to adapt the area to the needs of innovative companies, including the development of prototyping and certification centers and communication systems is to continue.

Currently, Kalibr includes 82 resident companies:

- Solstudio Industry LLC, the first digital textile printing company in Russia.

The enterprise prints on all types of fabric: natural, artificial and mixed (silk, cotton, synthetic fabrics, linen, wool, viscose) and designs fabric, clothes and accessories.

It offers services to business customers, design and interior studios and individuals.

Its capacity is 1.2 million linear meters of prints per year. The company employs 22 people;

- BASK LLC, a manufacturer of clothing and equipment for extreme sports, outdoor activities, travel and work in extreme weather conditions (outerwear, tents, sleeping bags).

The Kalibr technopark site allows the enterprise to develop and manufacture pilot batches of clothing and equipment. The company includes 30 factories in different Russian cities (almost 100,000 units of production per year).

It offers services to large business customers and individuals. BASK employs 105 people;

– Evocargo LLC, a developer of autonomous full-cycle turnkey logistics solutions, including the production of electric unmanned vehicles (electric cars) and control systems to transport goods at industrial enterprises and warehouses.

The Kalibr technopark site enables the enterprise to manufacture and test electric cars (except for welding, about 100 units annually), and also operates a center that controls the operation of electric cars anywhere in Russia.

The company offers services to large logistics centers. It employs 300 people;

- Genterra JSC, a company that develops and implements a full cycle of production of reagents for molecular diagnostics, biology and pharmaceuticals;

- Innovative Technology Company Endoprint LLC, a company developing individual implants (prostheses) to treat patients in severe cases, including maxillofacial surgery, neurological surgery, orthopedic surgery, traumatology surgery and cancer surgery, and producing medical instruments and anatomical models;

- ATOL LLC (anchor resident since August 2022), a manufacturer of cash registers and developer of software designed for automating retail and logistics processes;

- Linas Industrial and Commercial Firm LLC, a developer and producer of pumps, pumping stations and automated pumping units for water supply, heating, fire suppression systems in residential buildings and enterprise facilities;

- Intechcard LLC (anchor resident since March 2023), a company that produces and personalizes plastic smart cards, including bank cards, travel and student cards, loyalty cards;

- Avea Technology LLC, a company specialized in metalworking and production of components for industrial equipment (milling, machining);

- BANS JSC, a developer and producer of onboard aviation systems, ensuring the safety of flights and air navigation.

I'm In program: learning and teaching

I'm In is an all-Russian educational program for youth entrepreneurship supported by the Moscow Government, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation and Rosmolodezh.

The program objective is to develop entrepreneurial thinking and competencies of students from Russian universities, as well as to expand the practice of mentoring as a technology for informally sharing the best practices, experience and values.

The three-stage educational program is free for participants.

The first stage includes the All-Russian Entrepreneurial Tournament featuring university economic games focused on a team competition in developing a gaming financial strategy.

As part of the second stage, participants will have a two-month entrepreneurial course on developing a team business idea. At the end of the course, students present developed business ideas.

At the third stage, the teams and their mentors give business game lessons for schoolchildren in grades 8-11 from their region.

In 2022, the program covered 62 Russian regions. More than 85,000 students and schoolchildren participated in it. In Moscow alone, more than 3,000 students took part in the I'm in Business program. More than 600 people became program’s graduates, of which over 200 became mentors who gave more than 500 entrepreneurship lessons for 16,000 Moscow schoolchildren.

Last year, the program helped to develop 1,500 projects, some of which are now start-ups or successful businesses. These include:

- Kids Health, a mobile app to monitor the health and development of a child (project’s author: Anastasia Gornova, Perm Territory);

- CityGis, an analytical system to work with geoinformation data (project’s author: Alexey Fedotov, Chuvash Republic);

- Ignis System, production of decorative bio ethanol fireplaces (project’s author: Yaroslav Lapin, Nizhny Novgorod Region);

- 3D Factor, software for designing and 3D visualization of enterprises (project’s author: Pavel Piyaiko, Penza Region);

- My Voice, a portable communication device for people with communication difficulties and people who do not know sign language (project’s author: Valeria Semenova, St. Petersburg);

- Visor, an online monitoring system designed for repair work (project’s author: Leonid Batura, Omsk Region);

- SavePlay, an implemented functionality for a video player that adapts videos for people with epilepsy and color blindness (project’s author: Artem Gladkov, Chelyabinsk Region);

- Prilavok, an online platform to promote the self-employed (project’s author: Arseniy Sinitsyn, Lipetsk Region);

- Hoba, production of foam shampoo for animals that does not require rinsing (project’s author: Lada Soboleva, Moscow);

- Smart Hedgehog (Umny Ezh), a smart toy, a mini-model of a house made of building materials (project’s author: Alexander Korchagin, Moscow).

This year, the program is to be launched in 71 Russian regions involving over 200,000 students and schoolchildren.

More than 12,000 students are expected to take part in the I'm in Business program in Moscow. Of them, almost 900 graduates are going to become mentors who will conduct educational entrepreneurship workshops, trainings and business games for Moscow schoolchildren.