In late December the Zelenograd microelectronics cluster, part of a major innovation and industrial center just outside Moscow, signed a memo of intent with a counterpart in Grenoble, France. The partners are pursuing a dual goal of upgrading sector-related education standards in the Russian region and intensifying interaction in industry-oriented R&D.
The Moscow city administration is expected to back the effort with student exchange programs and also facilitate joint Russo-French project activities in microchip development and bio- and nanotech research. Projects to focus on in the near future include collaboration in developing new technologies for enhanced use of sensor networks.
Set up in 2005, the Grenoble cluster has become home to a number of advanced microelectronics segments, with giants like Schneider Electric and STMicroelectronics among residents and an aggregate 233-project portfolio under its belt.
The Zelenograd cluster, founded in 2012, is looking at the new international alliance as a way of “stepping up and improving product development,” as cluster CEO Vladimir Zaitsev put it at the signing of the memo in Grenoble on December 19.
The Russian cluster has been showing a healthy pace of development. Just one year into its operation, Zelenograd already has more than 150 resident companies, including internationally renowned Mikron and Angstrem. By 2017, the entity expects its residents to invest a total of 153 billion rubles (about $4.7 billion) in their projects.
As Russia is betting on the Zelenograd cluster to create new local jobs, the federal government and the cluster’s management are considering investing 60 billion rubles, or about $2 billion, in Zelenograd’s projected R&D and production center, with an estimated 10,000 square meters of clean rooms.
The ambitious project might take two-to-three years to complete, and it already has “a staff and technology base to start with,” Zaitsev said.
The project initiators hope the future center will become “a generator of quality startups and supplier of technologies for industry.” Zaitsev also believes the success of the effort could prompt Russian diasporas doing business abroad to come back.
Sources: RIA Novosti, ITAR-TASS
