Innovations in the Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod: Biomedicine and IT with a View on World Markets
With decades of tremendous achievements in Russia’s fundamental sciences domestic scientific and R&D organizations are still facing a through-the-ceiling gap between advanced technology ideas and their materialization in tangible market-driven projects and products. To address the problem the Lobachevsky State Universiy of Nizhny Novgorod (UNN) has put together a new innovation development strategy currently being pushed by the team of UNN’s recently appointed vice-rector for innovation policy. With years of experience in tech-focused business under its belt the team is creating a special entity inside the university aimed at assessing commercial viability of university ideas, looking for markets for high-tech products, mentors for innovators and investors for projects, and packaging the technology ideas into projects ready for the next rounds of investing. International collaboration with an eye to commercializing Nizhny projects globally is also under way, making it possible for UNN’s biomed and IT start-up teams to get insights into the USA business environment and make inroads into potential commercialization channels in Maryland and Indiana.