We were informed by the EMBASSY OF GREECE/MOSCOW OFFICE OF ECONOMIC-COMMERCIAL AFFAIRS that Greek public and private organisations may participate in the activities of the Russian Skolkovo Innovation Center, the largest innovation and startup hub in Russia. These are the following:
Α) the “Startup Village” (https://startupvillage.ru/en) conference, organized by the Skolkovo Innovation Center and supported by RosCosmos, to be held on May 24-25, 2021 with physical presence. 10,000 participants coming from 80 countries were present in the previous 2019 conference, with an agenda related to sustainable development and the appropriate methodology to attract investors for startups.
B) the Open Innovations Forum 2021, to be held in October 2021 (open innovation.ru/en)
C) the Softlanding Program (www.softlanding.sk.ru), carried out annually in three phases, with the aim of promoting participation of foreign enterprises more efficiently.
The next phase is scheduled to take place on May 31 – June 4, 2021 (deadline for registration: May 11th, 2021). If you wish to participate, please use the following link:
https://old.sk.ru/foundation/international/softlanding/survey/softlanding/add.aspx.
Relevant links are listed below:
- regarding categories of services covered by the Program
and
- regarding categories of events conducted by the Innovation Center (https://events.sk.ru/events/).
The Program aims to attract startup companies and is addressed to startups and small and medium enterprises (SME), providing a free workplace in a co-working area, comprehensive support for each business project by a personal project manager, integration in the Skolkovo ecosystem offering networking opportunities for companies, and support in order to access investors, business angels and development partners.
The Program also provides the opportunity to apply for the Skolkovo resident status, and, from a fiscal point of view, offers exemption from VAT, corporate property tax and profit tax, reimbursement of customs duty payments as well as grant financing ranging from 20,000 to 4 m $, depending on the pursued goal and the project development stage of the participating startup.
Technology sectors covered by the Program include energy efficiency, information technologies, agriculture, biomedical technologies, telecommunications, nuclear energy and space technologies.
The Russian Federation is the 12th largest economy in the world (in current prices) and the 6th by purchasing power parity (PPP); it boasts an attractive fiscal framework (with a personal-income tax rate of 13%) and a high-quality education system (8th among European countries).
According to the StartUpBlink database, a global map of startup ecosystems, the Russian startup company ecosystem comprises about 5 000 companies (almost half of them within the Skolkovo Innovation Center) and 90% of its activity is located in Moscow.
