In a commentary for Interfax news agency, Kirill Chernovol, Researcher at the Gaidar Institute's International Best Practices Analysis Department, spoke about the development of the University Technology Entrepreneurship Platform (UTEP) and its role in integrating student startups into the country's economy. In his opinion, the impact of such startups became measurable precisely after the Platform was included in the Technology federal project.
According to the Executive Order of the President of the Russian Federation on National Development Goals till 2030 and for the period up to 2036, the revenues of small technology companies (STCs) should increase at least sevenfold by 2030 as compared to the 2023 level. To unlock young people’s entrepreneurial potential, the RF Ministry of Education and Science launched UTEP, an initiative to train personnel in the field of technological entrepreneurship in 2022.
"Now the indicators are linked to facts that are verified in accordance with official databases: the status of STC, access to the stock exchange and revenues volume. Global standards for technological development assess not only the scale, but also the proportion of companies with sustainable growth, that is, those which increase revenues by 20% per year for three years and have a staff of at least ten employees. The Russian model is moving in this direction, too, while maintaining its own architecture," Kirill Chernovol noted.
According to Kirill Chernovol, small technology companies are becoming one of the key pillars of the country's technological development: they quickly adapt to challenges, find market niches and turn ideas into real products. UTEP is creating the necessary infrastructure for achieving this goal.
"The strength of the Russian Platform lies in the connection between universities, the granting of STC status to companies and support for them in entering capital markets. This design makes it possible to form a sustainable ecosystem where innovations are becoming the result of a built environment, rather than individual successes," the expert believes.
According to Kirill Chernovol, it is important not only to increase the number of STCs, but also to track their "survival rate", that is, how many companies continue to grow after 3 years. "This will be an indicator of quality, rather than quantity of technological growth," Kirill Chernovol concluded.