HSE Department of Innovation Management Launches Joint Project with Skolkovo

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BioMedTech is a business incubator created by the HSE University Department of Innovation Management and Skolkovo biomedical cluster. The aim of this pilot project is to combine scholarly research with the entrepreneurial competencies of the University’s students and teachers for the purpose of launching new business projects in biomedicine.

How to maintain a successful business in biomedicine? Are researchers capable of collaborating with student/ future entrepreneurs? The answers to these and several other questions will be sought after by the creators of the new business incubator.

The pilot project, BioMedTech, will help people from academia and beginner businesspeople to find a team, to assess the commercial potential of a particular technology or a product, in order to plan business models, as well as to secure Skolkovo residential preference and full support for their new business projects.

According to Anton Borovik, Senior Project Manager at the Skolkovo biomed cluster, their years of working with innovative start-ups have proven that a key element in project success is the team itself. To implement a commercially successful project, a core set of competencies is essential, including a deep understanding of the involved technology, experience with business processes, and skills focused towards business development.

Anton Borovik, Senior Project Manager at Skolkovo Biomed Cluster

The purpose of the new programme is to identify approaches to mutual understanding and fruitful cooperation between the academic community, with its penchant for new ideas, and entrepreneurs who can apply their knowledge and experience to utilize offered technologies for creating successful products and related marketing activities. We believe that such cooperation is beneficial for both parties: scholars can become owners of successful firms, while entrepreneurs may participate in creating innovative products.

Business incubator participants not only engage interdisciplinary partnerships, but also are eager to learn about investment and start own businesses based on promising ideas. They will also see how this growing area of technology entrepreneurship works. “The field of biomedical technology that we chose for the business incubator is as relevant as ever today,” Anton Borovik emphasized.

Tatyana Stroganova, Head of the HSE Innovation and Enterprise Office, noted that entrepreneurial skills are useful not only for those who dream of creating a business empire.

Tatyana Stroganova, Head of the HSE University Innovation and Enterprise Office

HSE University has been teaching entrepreneurial competencies to students from all disciplines and fields. Every day, with every new global event, we are convinced that entrepreneurship as a culture, a way of thinking, and a set of competencies is a kind of ‘fifth element’, which is essential for success for any professional, from a scholar to public official, from engineer to economist. BioMedTech was created to find research and technology concepts, as well as bringtogether balanced teams of researchers and technology entrepreneurs, who are capable of developing new products and quickly bringing them to market.