Despite the fact that technology parks have existed for more than half a century, at the moment there is no generally accepted definition or well-established classification. The International Association of Technology Parks proposed the following definition in early 2002:
"A technology park is an organization managed by specialists whose main goal is to increase the well-being of the local community through the promotion of an innovative culture, as well as the competitiveness of innovative business and scientific organizations. To achieve these goals, the technology park stimulates and manages the flow of knowledge and technology between universities, research institutions, companies and markets. It facilitates the creation and growth of innovative companies through incubation and spin-off processes. In addition to high-quality premises, the Technopark provides other services."
Such a broad definition of the technopark was intended to embrace all models existing in the world. Thus, this definition sets the minimum set of standards and requirements for the applicant for the title of "technological park". The International Association of Technoparks emphasizes the equivalence of such concepts as "technological park", "technopol", "technological area", "research park" and "science park". In the UK, the term "science park" is usually used, in the USA - "research park", in Russia - "technopark".
Organizations designed to stimulate the creation of technology parks on their territory define them more specifically. Thus, the Queensland Innovation Council proposes the following wording:
"Technology park is a legal entity created for the more adequate use of scientific and technological resources to improve the economic base of the region. The mission of the technopark is to stimulate regional development, deindustrialization, and facilitate the implementation of commercial and industrial innovations. The activity of the technopark enriches the scientific and / or technical culture region, creates jobs and added value".
Some researchers, in addition to the technoparks themselves, also distinguish their subspecies:
- technological incubators,
- science/research parks,
- technological areas.
Technology incubators specialize in the commercialization of scientific and commercial developments. Even in the case of financial independence, as a rule, they are located within the existing technopark. Science/research parks have closer ties with universities than technoparks, and they concentrate highly educated personnel and large volumes of high-tech research. Technological areas are a whole cluster of interdependent enterprises operating in a common and / or related industries, and located in the same geographic region. These enterprises share a common infrastructure, labor market and services and deal with similar opportunities and threats.
There are several organizational forms in which technoparks successfully operate. A university or research institute may be the sole founder of a technology park. More often there is a variant in which the park has from 2 to 20 founders. This governance mechanism is much more complex than the single founder mechanism, but is considered more efficient, especially in terms of access to various sources of funding. In the case of several founders, either a joint venture or a limited liability company is formed. At the same time, the contribution of each of the founders depends on its resources and usually consists of the following:
- university - technology transfer, land, working capital;
- local administration - land, infrastructure, grants;
- bank - investments, financial expertise, venture capital;
- industrial enterprises - land, infrastructure, investments, project expertise.
However, regardless of the forms of organization, a successfully functioning technopark can make a significant contribution to the economy of the region due to:
- Stimulating the economic growth of the region
- Diversification of the local economy, making it more sustainable
- Development of successful small and medium-sized businesses
- Increasing local budget revenues.
What is a technopark
There are many definitions of the word "technopark" on the Internet. The average sounds something like this: Technopark(short for technology park) is a territory where scientific organizations, higher educational institutions and manufacturing enterprises are united to create favorable conditions for the development and commercialization of innovations.
Synonyms: technopolises, technograds.
It is believed that the first Russian technopark was created in Tomsk in 1990. Now there are already about 800 of them.
Although the prototype of the current Russian technoparks were (science cities), it can be seen with the naked eye that the technopark model was copied from Silicon Valley(cm. ).
Let me remind you the essence Silicon Valley.
Figuratively speaking, "Silicon Valley" is an alloy of scientific and educational centers with high-tech production, cemented by impressive capital.
It should be noted that all four components - science, universities, production and capital - are important and necessary. If you remove at least one of the components, "Silicon Valley" will lose its effectiveness. For example, if you remove capital and production, it will remain, if you remove science and education, production will remain, and if you remove capital, then there will be nothing to feed science and education, and production will wither away.
Note that the Russian definition of the term “technopark” does not say anything about capital (apparently, it is understood that funding will be made from the federal and regional budgets, and from the “internal subcutaneous fat” of manufacturing enterprises).
According to experts, the annual damage from the "brain drain" abroad in Russia is $ 50-60 billion.
Statesmen believe that the Russian technoparks under construction will create a barrier to "brain drain".
How many technoparks are there in Russia
According to various estimates, today in Russia there are about 800 objects that call themselves technoparks. Of these, only 10-12 meet the requirements for technoparks by the regulator - the Ministry of Information and Communications. At the same time, according to the version, there are 84 technology parks and 58 technology transfer centers in the country.
Our plans are huge
Today - in accordance with the state program - the construction of technology parks is carried out in 7 regions of Russia: Kaluga, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Tyumen regions, the Republic of Tatarstan and St. Petersburg.
According to Ivanov, about 80,000 new jobs can be created in the pilot regions with the construction of technoparks. “In general, by 2011, the value of the total volume of products produced as a result of the activities of technopark resident companies may amount to more than 100 billion rubles a year. The average revenue per employee of a technopark resident company can be about 1.5 million rubles,” Ivanov said at a briefing following the meeting on the implementation of the state program for the construction of technoparks.
Can the Russian technology parks to compete
An important force in the development of the Russian economy are technoparks that allow you to create and promote science and technology business.
Innovative companies based on the sites of technology parks will make it possible to bring the domestic industry to the level of the world's leading economies, to cancel Russia's technological dependence on the developed countries of the West.
What is a technopark?
Technopark is a scientific and technical complex of enterprises created to create a favorable environment for the development of innovative companies (residents).
The main tasks of technology parks in Russia:
- Organization of in-line reproduction of innovative business companies;
- Providing the most comfortable conditions;
- Economic and financial support.
Parks help the introduction of scientific and technical developments in industry, the promotion of goods on the market.
Why there was a need for technoparks
At the beginning of the 21st century, it became clear that Russia was lagging behind other countries in economic development. The five-year economic planning inherited from the Soviet Union does not allow Russian enterprises to develop - one can only dream of modernization in such conditions.
The equipment was morally and physically obsolete. New technologies for production had to be bought. Russia fell into complete dependence on technologically more developed countries.
The experience of foreign countries showed that small business plays an important role in the development of the economy, which is mobile and sensitive to changes: it is ready to rebuild, to solve issues of new technologies. Some experience in the formation of such enterprises already existed, but in order to promote small innovative businesses, it was necessary to open budget financing.
The history of the formation of technoparks in Russia
In Russia, the first technoparks appeared in the early 1990s. They were structural divisions of universities and were not active organizations claiming to be.
The first real technopark in Russia was the Tomsk Science and Technology Park (1990). Its history began long before perestroika.
Back in 1971 here, in the basements of TIRET ( state university electronics), created the first running line for a department store on Lenin Square, sharpened lenses for lasers. The created lasers turned out to be better than those brought to the exhibition from Germany (exhibition at the House of Scientists, 1973).
Three years later, in 1993, the Academpark at Novosibirsk University was opened, and in subsequent years, technoparks began to appear everywhere: at every institute or university. To resolve the situation, in 2000, accreditation was carried out, which was passed by 30 operating technology parks.
Accreditation took into account the degree of involvement of students in the work of the park, the number of inventions created and applied, the interest of the industry of the region and the country in the activities of the technopark. Such requirements made it possible to get rid of organizations created solely for profit and the use of budget funds.
Since 2006, the development of the state program for the construction of technology parks began. Money was received from the budget for specific priority parks. For 2017-2019 it is planned to spend 6.8 billion rubles from the state budget for the development of the infrastructure of 15 new technology parks in Russia. At the beginning of 2018, 115 parks operate in Russia.
Types and forms of ownership in the technopark
The first technoparks in Russia had a single founder in the person of a higher educational institution - the founder of the park. With the introduction of the state program for the creation of technology parks and the allocation of subsidies, parks are created as joint-stock companies, the authorized capital of which has up to 30 founders.
Initially capital joint-stock company invested by the state, local administration. As innovative companies develop, they begin to invest their own money, become shareholders: they buy expensive equipment, build new buildings for laboratories and offices.
There is also the option of 100% private investment. So, a newly built park on greenfield land should pay off in 5 years (provided that residents fill it by 90-100%).
We list the resources and organizations that allow technology parks to successfully exist and develop:
- State direct subsidies under the development program;
- Funds from the budget of the local city and / or regional administration (including the transfer of land, infrastructure);
- Educational institutions on the basis of which the park was created: supply personnel with ideas, projects;
- Industrial enterprises opening branches on the site;
- Companies developing on the basis of the park.
How the technopark works
The classic technopark includes:
- engineering infrastructure;
- Technology centers, service structure;
- Office, laboratory and production sites;
- Business incubator.
Engineering infrastructure
At the first stage of the construction of the technopark, it is determined which clusters are considered priority and what infrastructure is needed for each of them. The need for electricity, gas, water, utilities (what kind of storage facilities, storage facilities for chemicals, experimental sites are needed) is calculated.
For example, for development in the field of IT, you can get by with offices with a set of furniture, computers, powerful servers - this will not require special costs of electricity and technological services.
For the cluster of instrumentation, it is necessary to provide for the power consumption of electricity, production sites for creating prototypes - prototypes of existing devices.
Nanotechnologies require electric power, high-pressure gas pipelines, gas holders, storage facilities for chemical reagents.
All this must be foreseen at the stage of planning and construction of underground utilities.
Technology centers, service
Technology centers are production sites that allow developers to create prototypes, prototypes of devices, series of finished goods, and make adjustments.
Before the advent of technoparks, it was impossible to make a part in one copy. Not a single enterprise, not a single plant took on such an order, since this required reconfiguration of existing equipment, disrupted the deadlines for fulfilling government orders. It was impossible for a developer to make a prototype, a prototype that could require thousands of custom-made parts.
Technological centers make an order for modern equipment in a short time. You can make as many design changes as you like, knowing that there will be no problems with manufacturing.
Finished samples must be stored somewhere, packaged somehow; it is necessary to print drawings, passports for products, move products around the territory. All this requires separate services.
Office, laboratory and production sites
Laboratory and production facilities are needed for research by developers, testing of prototypes. Typically, such sites are laboratories with complex expensive equipment.
Manufacturing facilities include:
- Conference rooms;
- Meeting rooms;
- Rest rooms for employees;
- Rooms for attendants;
- Auxiliary equipment rooms;
- Canteens;
- Offices of resident companies.
Business incubator
The business incubator is the heart of the technopark. Here are the offices of start-up companies that are just starting their way in business. They can be located in different buildings of the respective clusters.
The period of formation of an innovative company in a business incubator is 3 years.
Technopark operation principles
The purpose of technology parks in Russia is in-line production, the creation of favorable conditions for this, and assistance in promoting goods on the market.
The classical cycle of developing a new technological product includes the following stages:
- Scientific research;
- drafting,
- Project protection;
- Experimental design developments;
- Prototyping;
- Production of prototypes;
- Investments, marketing, promotion;
- Making necessary changes and improvements.
The points are linked, funding may stop at any stage if the investor considers further development unpromising.
Being under the roof of the technopark, startups - newborn companies - get the full right to use the laboratories, production facilities of the technology center, and all service departments.
Under such conditions, designing is easier: many organizational and technical issues disappear.
First steps to create an innovative enterprise
To attract new people to the technopark, summer schools and business incubators are being created.
To participate in the summer school, you only need to submit an application - applicants are considered even with the craziest ideas. There will be no refusals - the main thing is that the theme of the project corresponds to the technopark cluster, so that the author of the project is passionate about the idea and eager to implement it. Of course, the projects will go through several filters: their soundness from a scientific point of view, the degree of significance, the need for the national economy will be evaluated - only after successfully coping with several stages of project protection, the authors of the idea will receive resident status.
They do not teach in the technopark, but the leaders of operating innovative companies previously created in the technopark and experts share their experience and skills. How and where to start a business? How to create a new product from idea to prototype and mass production on the market? How to work with investors? Everyone who wants to start an innovative business, make a career, earn money will receive answers to these questions.
How can a third-party organization get into the technopark?
Third-party organizations that decide to use the technopark platform, become a resident of the business incubator, need to go through the procedure for entering the technopark. Let's see how this happens.
- An application is being submitted. Attention! The application must be submitted to the cluster corresponding to the direction of the project, and the project itself must be somehow connected with new technologies.
- The documentation is submitted to the expert council, a presentation is made. In the expert council, the application will be considered by specialists in the profile of the project, representatives of investment funds, individuals or interested companies, representatives of consulting organizations.
- The expert opinion is submitted to the Interdepartmental Commission. A positive result implies obtaining the status of a resident, placing a technopark on the site, benefits, and using the infrastructure.
Project Protection
The applicant presents the project to a group of experts: heads of resident companies, representatives of organizations related to the topic of the project. Individuals who plan to invest funds and receive profit from this participate in the discussion.
The questions are different: about theoretical foundations of the project, its innovative component, the idea, the difference from existing analogues, technical and economic indicators, the scope of use, the volume of investments and others, completely unexpected. The author of the project must approach the answers with all responsibility, because the acceptance of the project for consideration depends on them, as well as the allocation of funds in case of a positive decision.
Probability of project financing
When considering a project, the management company relies on the current state policy in the field of regulation of innovation processes. There are lists of priority areas for the long-term and current development of innovative business in certain sectors of industrial production.
Try to match the project to one of the points.
When agreeing on a project, the commission is guided by the following principles:
- Compliance of the project with investment priorities;
- Possible benefit from the invention;
- Applicability, value of new products;
- Forecasted market demand;
- The need for material costs, investments;
- Possibility of creating a product based on the technopark.
The probability of objectivity of such estimates is small, the results are not very clear. When deciding on investments, the commission relies on the experience and results of studies of market needs, constantly conducted management company. Depending on the decision of the commission, project financing can be approved immediately or put in a queue.
TOP-12 technoparks in Russia
The Association of Clusters and Technoparks, founded in 2011 (55 enterprises), evaluates technoparks in Russia on the basis of voluntarily submitted documentation on the economic and economic activities of enterprises, after which a rating is compiled. In the latest published rating (November 2, 2017), the following organizations were included in the list of parks with the highest level of efficiency:
- Nanotechnology Center "Technospark", Moscow;
- Technopark "Strogino", Moscow;
- Nanotechnology Center “Sigma. Novosibirsk, Novosibirsk region;
- Technopark "Caliber", Moscow;
- AU "Technopark-Mordovia", Republic of Mordovia;
- Scientific and technological park "Novosibirsk", Novosibirsk region;
- Technopark "Sarov", Nizhny Novgorod region;
- Ulyanovsk Center, Ulyanovsk region;
- Technopolis "Moscow", Moscow;
- JSC Technopark of the Novosibirsk Academgorodok (Academpark), Novosibirsk Region;
- Technopark in the field of high technologies "IT-Park" (in Kazan and Naberezhnye Chelny), Republic of Tatarstan;
- Technopark in the field of high technologies (Nizhny Novgorod), Nizhny Novgorod region.
The first university technopark appeared in 1947 in the USA in the city of Boston. The ten-year experience of this first, as well as the university technology parks that appeared after it, was so successful that starting from the seventies, the number of technology parks began to grow rapidly.
Technoparks operate in the general field of the so-called umbrella structures.
These structures (which also include business incubators, innovation centers, engineering centers, etc.) are designed to serve start-up entrepreneurs, scientists, developers, engineers in order to ensure rapid and direct implementation of developments and business plans. The specifics of the technopark are scientific, design and technological developments related to high technologies (hi-tech).
The author of the idea presents his project to the administration of the technopark, written in the form of a business plan.
If the project is approved, then a contract is usually signed with the author for 2-3 years (during which it can be terminated if the parties do not fulfill the conditions written in it) and the author becomes a client of the technopark. He is provided with a "cell" - the production module of the technopark, where he works. Technoparks' clients use telecommunications services, accounting, consultations of managers, lawyers, etc. on preferential terms, and right there, on the spot. There is no need to look for the right specialist on the side - they are all here. To pay for these services and other costs associated with the implementation of the project, customers receive a loan from the technopark (sometimes it is provided by banks or interested firms). All this is included in the list of technical park services. This is what the umbrella is all about. This service becomes efficient and starts generating income for the technopark (and hence for the university or research center that usually establishes the technopark) when the projects are the most efficient and profitable.
The business incubator is the closest organizational structure to the technopark. However, it does not arise on the basis of a university or a scientific center, but is completely focused on outside clients. This is a purely commercial structure designed to revive small businesses, and therefore it is often subsidized by the state (in the USA, Finland, Sweden, etc.). The incubator is not focused exclusively on hi-tech, which is mandatory for a technopark, but can implement a variety of projects, for example, in trade. Most of the technopark's clients will never become businessmen - they will complete the project, implement their development and return to the scientific laboratory. The incubator prepares businessmen.
Starting from 1990, university technoparks began to appear in Russia.
Despite the strong differences in the economic conditions of different countries, there is one universal reason for the emergence of technology parks in state universities. This reason lies in the fact that in order to provide the most favorable conditions for development, universities create multi-channel systems for financing their activities.
The first main component of this system is the state (federal) funding of educational and scientific activities.
The second component is the replenishment of the university's budget through scientific research - the R&D component. The main task of the Research Institute is the organization of scientific research in various fields of science and technology. This state of affairs was, is and will be. However, some areas of research are developing so powerfully that they require a qualitatively new experimental or even production base. Thus, these areas outgrow the framework of the NCH and for their further development require the formation of a legal entity - either in the form of a research institute, or in the form of an UC, or in the form of a small enterprise.
The association of such legal entities creates a technopark.
The third component is through conducting educational activities on a commercial basis (commercial reception, various educational services).
The fourth component is due to the production activities of a technical university (technopark).
Fifth - on international relations, funding for international programs, sponsorship and so on.
The basis of the activity of the technopark is production activity. To solve specific problems related to the implementation of this activity, separate legal entities are created - small enterprises. These small enterprises, being isolated from each other, find themselves in a rather difficult situation, because they have very limited financial, technical, personnel and other capabilities. For this reason, small businesses tend to form associations, which are called technology parks or, in short, technoparks. So, a technopark is an association of small university firms, with the aim of creating a common system of economic and legal services, maintenance, as well as a common system of investments and a common system of management innovation activities. In other words, a technopark is a friendly environment that ensures high survival rates for small high school science-intensive firms and favorable conditions for their development. For reference, let me tell you that in economically prosperous Finland, 2/3 of small businesses develop within five years, if they are left without support, without a friendly environment.