Nanotechnology Center ULNANOTECH about opportunities of being it’s resident
Ulyanovsk nanocenter ULNANOTECH (Limited Liability Company “Ulyanovsk Center for Technology Transfer”) was established under the RUSNANO nanotechnology facilities program. Cumulative investment into the Ulyanovsk nanocenter amounted to 3.1 B Rub., including 2.4 B Rub into equipment. 0n 16 August 2013 the nanocenter was officially opened.
The nanocenter is located in “Zavolzhye” industrial park and occupies an area of approximately 6 thousand square meters. It incorporates the buildings with offices, laboratories and two production facilities, one of which houses Metal-Composite, LLC – a daughter company of ULNANOTECH to produce goods from composition materials and aluminum alloys with the use of a die-casting method.
The nanocenter is engaged in support of technology entrepreneurship at early stages: search for disruptive technologies, creation of startups.
The nanocenter houses a wide range of research laboratories thoroughly equipped for molecular-genetic diagnostics, development of new types of paints, composites, high-strength concretes and construction materials, functional thin-film coatings, and electronic devices.
Priority areas for residents:
· Alternative & hydrogen energy
· Biotechnology and molecular genetics
· Wearables
· New technologies in construction
· Thin-film coatings
The nanocenter works with not only «incoming flow» of residents but also actively forms it. The team works a lot with universities and research organizations, other organizations of scientific and innovative infrastructure both in Ulyanovsk region and in other regions. In view of this, a lot of teams and professionals come to the nanocenter from other regions.
The compulsory condition for technology companies and projects to work with the nanocenter is having an entrepreneur in the project. If a project is promising, but a team does not have entrepreneurship competencies, the representatives of the nanocenter’s team or entrepreneurs from outside with experience in implementing projects enter the project. Now we have about 20 entrepreneurs around the nanocenter.
Another compulsory condition for residents is providing a share to the Nanocenter’s management company in the resident’s project. This makes it possible to build relations between the nanocenter and a resident on a strategic long-term basis. The resident gets an opportunity to make the most of this partnership, including active participation of the nanocenter’s team of professionals in the development and promotion of the project, risk sharing, up-front investments.
The nanocenter plans to exit a project mainly through the sale of its share to a strategic investor. Relations with such investors and partners are built long before the expected transaction.
The business model of the nanocenter also involves the provision of a wide range of administrative, amenity and specialized services to residents both by the team of the nanocenter and by the subsidiary service company.
The strategic goal of the nanocenter’s team is to create a successful model of serial technological entrepreneurship at the level of the region as a whole, and then beyond. Implementation of such a model will allow creating and developing of long-term business projects on the applied science basis that can become the basis for economic development of the region.
