As you know, the intellectual product, developed by scientists is brought under the economy not as fast as one would it like to be. The specialists think that the centers of transfer of technologies will help the scientists to enter into contacts with those who are ready to turn their scientific developments into life. Not long ago a joint project of the Belarusian government, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) called “Enhancement of the national system of transfer of technologies in the Republic of Belarus on the basis of information and communication technologies” was presented in the Academy of Sciences of Belarus. “The project is meant for 36 months, its basic aim lies in development of the national system of transfer of technologies: by means of improvement of the legal environment, introduction of information and communication technologies and development of infrastructure for innovation business support”, — says Vladimir Nedelko, First Deputy Chairman of the State Committee on science and technologies. The project will be implemented under the aegis of NSA of Belarus; it is continuation of the previous one, as a result of which in the Academy the National Center on Transfer of Technologies (NCTT) has already been established, a group of specialists in this field has been trained, the methods on promotion of innovation developments in the sphere of national economy are analyzed.
The first project was a so called pilot balloon in the big innovation game, and at the moment a net of branches of NCTT is established all through the country. To speed up transfer operations, join forces to the benefit not only Belarus, but also its neighbouring countries NCTT call in aid to UNIDO, UNDP. “Belarus is rich in human resources and highly-qualified specialists, that’s why this project is of extreme interest for us, — says Levan Buadze, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Belarus. — There are unique engineering products that are worth interest on the part of investors there. But first of all we have to establish a mechanism of transfer of technologies, and to my mind this will promote economic growth of Belarus. To develop innovations people need impetuses which are created with the help of market conditions — these are exactly the conditions we are going to create in cooperation with the government”.
Thus, the project investors are preparing the grounds for future innovation breakthroughs. “We will develop new regulations for the system of support of transfer of technologies to operate effectively, — explains Alexander Uspensky, Executive Director of NCTT and the above project. — We will as well try to ensure that in the process of estimation and transfer of technologies the intellectual property rights are not violated”. The project budget amounts to 420 thousand dollars, the government thereat will allocate 180 thousand. The State Committee on science and technologies will become the project’s head organization, and the National Center on Transfer of Technologies will be its executive body. The functions and responsibilities of the project’s parties have already been defined. In particular the projects envisages establishing of two new branches of the center — on the basis of the National Library and in the High Tech Park; the government appropriates money for the purpose of promotion of innovation sensibility of the youth, establishing a center for researches on technologic foresight and training of such specialists. Besides the partici-pants plan to reach not only short-term objectives, but also to lay the foundation for international scientific and technical cooperation, to enhance уthe structure of innovation activities, to improve the legal environment for the business.
There is hope that after implementation of the project the Belarusian business will have a chance to develop some innovation technologies gratuitously. In fact NCTT plans to design a draft resolution of the Cabinet Council on the term of gratuitous transfer to small business participants of the results of scientific and development researches, carried out on expense of the national funds. Now they have to pay for it and pay a lot. According to the experts, gratuitous transfer will help to breathe life into the technologies that are in the moment buried in oblivion. By the way, in the developed countries it is considered to be a common practice. After all the process of commercialization of a new technology takes 5–7 years, and it costs 100–200 times more, than the amount spent on its development in research laboratories. And only about 10 percent of the technologies being developed allow for commercial success.
“We are trying not only to advance the science to a new level, but also to create conditions for transfer of its achievements to real economy, — says Petr Vityaz, First Vice Chairman of the Presidium of NAS of Belarus. — We have to form a system of relations that will make it possible to attract the most recent high technologies to our country and export them as well. That’s why we create the innovation system, the elements of which are the High Tech Park, Academtechpark Association, Academexportinvest Company and the National Center on Transfer of Technologies. That’s why the Academy readily supported this project as well: as it is aimed both at promotion of new technologies to the international markets and attraction of investments to new researches”.
Mikhail Ivanovich
