Ural Scientific-Educational Center Officially Confirmed

15:11, July 10, 2019

Governors of Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk and Kurgan regions signed a cooperation agreement

Governors of three Russian regions agreed to create a World-class Interregional Scientific-educational Center in the Urals yesterday at the International Industrial Trade Fair INNOPROM-2019. The agreement was signed by the Sverdlovsk region’s Governor Evgeny Kuyvashev, acting Governor of the Chelyabinsk region Aleksey Teksler and acting Governor of the Kurgan region Vadim Shumkov.

‘We are uniting the efforts of three regions around one of the key tasks: to enhance the global competitive advantages of the territories through the growth of innovations and development of cooperation between science and manufacturers,’ said Evgeny Kuyvashev after the signing the agreement. ‘Under the national project “Science” we are creating the Ural Interregional Scientific-educational Center. It will become the key object of the innovative infrastructure, the core of our regions’ high technologies development.’

The Scientific-educational Center will be oriented towards advanced industrial technologies. It will unite the potentials of educational, scientific and real companies of the three regions in conducting world-class applied scientific research and development, creating competitive technologies and products and their commercialization. Also, the Center will be aimed at training personnel for scientific and technological problem solving with the purpose of breakthrough development in priority areas and enhancement of the economic competitiveness of the regions within the perimeter of the Center.

‘Today we are witnessing the creation of a whole eco-system for supporting education, science and innovations in three regions,’ said Victor Koksharov, Rector of Ural Federal University. ‘It was our University that initiated the creation of the Scientific-educational center, and we are taking up the functions of the project office and preparing the application for the 2020 contest. The agreement that has been signed gives us very serious ground for winning the contest by uniting the efforts of three largest regions in the industrial heart of Russia.’

Victor Koksharov also added that the participants of the Scientific-educational Center will support research areas in the interests of industrial enterprises, which will contribute to the development of the regions and bring significant economic benefits.

To accomplish the tasks, the participating organizations will receive a number of internal and external preferences aimed at simplifying the interaction between them, which includes simplifying procedures, removing administrative barriers, providing preferential access to facilities, establishing special taxation schemes and other measures provided for by current legislation and relations between the participants.

The day before at INNOPROM, a round table was held on the creation of the Ural World-class Interregional Scientific-educational Center. The discussion was attended by representatives of educational and scientific organizations, authorities, and industrial enterprises of the three regions.

In the course of the event, which was organized by UrFU, the speakers presented the concept of the Center, the priority areas of R&D and educational activities, and the key projects that will allow the Center to build into the national and global research agenda using the accumulated human resources and scientific potential on the territories of Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk and Kurgan regions.