Experts highly appreciated the activities of the Moscow Innovation Cluster and the Moscow Innovation Agency
The Government of Moscow won second place among state structures in the International contest Global ICT Excellence Awards in the Startup Ecosystem nomination. The award is given to organizations that have implemented the most successful startup support projects. The Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) won first place. The winners were announced at the 25th World Congress of Information Technologies WCIT.
"Even the most breakthrough projects and ideas need conditions for growth in the beginning. A whole ecosystem has been created in Moscow for innovators. It includes technoparks with all the necessary infrastructure, educational and acceleration programs, sectorial competitions, and a pilot innovation testing program that is unique in world practice. The prize received is the result of the coordinated work of the city institution specialists and the professional community," Natalia Sergunina, Deputy Moscow Mayor said.
The jury of the award highly appreciated the Moscow Government programs for technology entrepreneurship. In particular, the experts rated the activities of the Moscow Innovation Cluster (MIC) aimed at transforming startups into full-scale innovative businesses.
According to Natalia Sergunina, the cluster has combined all the main elements of the urban ecosystem for innovators. With its help, they can find partners and investors, organize production, establish cooperation with large companies, industrial, educational and scientific organizations.
Within the MIC framework, 11 intersectoral clusters specializing in developments of artificial intelligence, medicines, motorsports and other fields have been created. More than 10 thousand specialists from different fields participate in these projects alone.
More than 30 thousand organizations from Moscow and 80 more regions of Russia have already joined the Moscow Innovation Cluster. The cluster is supervised by the Moscow Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovative Development, and the City Department of Information Technology is responsible for its digital capabilities.
"For startups development in Moscow, an infrastructure, which, in addition to technoparks and the Moscow Innovation Cluster, includes the Tsifrovoye Delovoye Prostranstvo and Start Hub sites at the Krasny Oktyabr has been created" Alexey Fursin, Head of the Moscow Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovative Development, added.
The programs of the Moscow Innovation Agency were also highly appreciated by the jury. Among them is the Moscow Accelerator project for scaling innovative solutions in promising batches in partnership with leading corporations. In two years, 13 thematic tracks were organized, for participation in which more than 4.8 thousand applications were received. Another major project is a pilot innovation testing program intended for testing ready-made technological products in Urban Environment. More than 140 sites in 18 branches are available for pilots. At the moment, 110 tests have been completed, 41 more are in the process of testing.
The Global ICT Excellence Awards have been awarded for more than 20 years for the best innovative solutions in the private and public sector aimed at developing information and communication technologies and improving the quality of people's lives. Its founder is the World Information Technologies and Services Alliance (WITSA). The organization includes more than 80 countries.
The Moscow Innovation Agency brings together government and business representatives, as well as technology companies to solve jointly the tasks of creating, testing and implementing high-tech projects in the capital. It is supervised by the City Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovative Development.
