Authorities of Sverdlovsk region are going to allocate $1,8m from the regional budget on development of nanotechnologies in 2011, according to Valery Turlayev, the first deputy Minister of Industry and Science of the region.

      Mr. Turlaev made this announcement at a regional government meeting on realization of the regional program “Development of Infrastructure of Nano-Industry and Innovations in Sverdlovsk Region in 2011-2015.”

      “The program implies investing $1.8m from the regional budget into this sector in 2011, which would in its turn facilitate raising funding from the program participants amounting to over $5m. According to our information, in 2011 about 20 new jobs were created in the nano-industry. A total of $2.8m was raised from non-budgetary sources on projects realization, and production of technical products in the nanotechnologies sector worth a total of $3m was launched. Since the beginning of the year, 14 agreements have been signed on subsidizing expenses on R&D and technological projects,” Mr. Turlayev said.

      According to the department of information politics of the governor, this year the region has signed agreements with the Russian Fund for Fundamental Research (RFFR) and the Russian Humanities Science Fund (RHSF) on parity finance of projects and scientific researches worth a total of over $1m. Under the joint tender with the RFFR 69 projects have been financed from the regional budget in 2011, RHSF financed 45 projects. Besides that, the region has signed 26 agreements with scientific institutions for carrying out fundamental scientific worth $1.3m. Over 800 scientific workers from 29 scientific institutions and universities in Sverdlovsk region take part in these projects. 

        In July, the Minister of Industry and Science of Sverdlovsk region, Alexander Petrov, announced that it was planned to create a pool of 170 innovational businesses, including nanotechnological ones, by 2016. He pointed out at fact that an average annual earnings of the new businesses would be not less than 1 billion roubles a year. 

Sources: Marchmontnews RIA Novosti

      Image: Membrana.ru