Today, on the 24th of April, the IX Kazan Venture Fair opened in the capital of Tatarstan.
This event has been organised since 2005 with support of the President of the RT. Its organisers are Investment and Venture Funds of the Republic of Tatarstan and Russian Venture Investment Association.
The Fair participants are representatives of Russian and foreign venture funds, private investors and large corporations, that is, altogether over 1000 interested specialists from all over the world. As reported by the organisers, investors from France, Canada, Germany, USA, Finland, Switzerland, Poland, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Israel showed interest in Kazan Fair this year. 38 innovation projects were selected for presentation out of 83, investment volume asked for is USD 82,9 mln. The majority of developments belongs to higher education institutions, with three stands offered to Kazan Federal University.
The President of the RT, Mr. Rustam Minnikhanov, Executive Director of Russian Venture Investment Association, Ms. Albina Nikkonen, the Director of Infrastructural and Academic Programs Fund of Rosnano, Mr. Andrey Svinarenko, Director General of Russian Venture Company, OJSC, Mr. Igor Agamirzyan, and the Director of Investment and Venture Fund of the RT, Mr. Aynur Aydeldinov, took part in the opening ceremony.
After the opening ceremony the delegation had a tour around the Fair exposition. The stand Agilent – KFU was the first. The Vice-Rector of KFU for Research, Mr. Danis Nurgaliev, told Mr. Minnikhanov that an agreement concluded between Agilent and KFU at the previous Venture Fair had brought fruit: a promising laboratory having developments ready for introduction had been organized. Furthermore, several other agreements with leading Russian companies, such as Rostechnologii, Shvabe concern etc., had already been signed.
The Vice-Rector of KFU reported that Kazan University and the aforesaid company had several large joint research and academic projects. In collaboration with Agilent KFU had already created a number of sensors which could be used in medicine and petrochemistry. Agilent company had granted KFU software tools which permitted to do 3D-modelling of computer microchips, which resulted in money saving.
Two more KFU stands were devoted to new technologies in heavy oil and bitumen refining, as well as to developments by Higher School of Information Technologies and Information Systems of KFU. KFU officer Mr. Ruslan Gaysin said that KFU decided to present Eprano project at the Venture Fair 2014.
“We can create virtual cities, visualize various laboratories, plants, technopoleis,” he said. “These technologies are available on all devices: tablet PCs, different browsers, and you needn’t install anything special, all you need is to go to social networks or the site.”
After familiarization with the exposition a plenary session devoted to the topic “Modern models of innovation development of the USA, Europe, Asia – is there any universal recipe for Russia?” was held in the framework of the Venture Fair.