OREANDA-NEWS. Novosirbirsk's Technoprom-2013, an international forum on technical development, was the backdrop to the opening of a nanocenter that has important implications for this high-tech and academically rich Russian city. Governor of Novosibirsk Oblast Vasily Yurchenko, RUSNANO CEO Anatoly Chubais, and general director of the Fund for Infrastructure and Education Programs Andrey Svinarenko, took part in ceremonies for SIGMA.Novosibirsk.

RUSNANO has invested 1.5 billion rubles in the project. More than two-thirds of the investment went to technical equipment for the new facility. Partners in the project include the Administration of Novosibirsk Oblast, Technopark of Novosibirsk Academgorodok, and the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The nanocenter will facilitate the creation of high-tech startups in areas of science that are already advanced in Novosibirsk. It will make available infrastructure, including very costly specialized processing equipment, necessary for nanotechnology companies to advance through various stages of development. And the center will be a partner to technology entrepreneurs in the region, assisting them to attract the investment needed to realize their ventures. In 2014 SIGMA.Novosibirsk and the administration of Novosibirsk Oblast will launch a service to promote and sell innovative products in the oblast-a measure that will support existing high-tech companies and companies that are being established.

SIGMA.Novosibirsk will carry out its work from its primary location at the Technopark of Novosibirsk Academgorodok and at three other locations, each focused in a specialized area of science.

The new nanocenter's portfolio already contains 20 startups, and that number is expected to grow to some 80 during 2014. In addition, two business incubators have been set up under the auspices SIGMA.Novosibirsk-NANOCERAMICS, an incubator for ceramic technologies, and BIOSTART, a biotechnology incubator. NANOCERAMICS and Novosibirsk company NEVZ-CERAMICS have set up a research facility where scientists can use cutting-edge equipment to test and develop new types of ceramics rapidly and launch new ventures in this promising sector.