Russia moves to foster closer ties between IT business and academia

Two Russian ministries are expected to jointly create and help fund a network of IT-focused scientific and research centers at Russia?s leading universities.

Two Russian ministries are expected to jointly create and help fund a network of IT-focused scientific and research centers at Russia?s leading universities, East-West Digital News, the international resource on Russian digital industries, reported earlier today, citing industry portal ComNews.ru. The Ministry of Education and Science will lead the effort, while the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications will back the move by liaising with the national IT expert community. Government tenders are slated for the next six months to pick 50 recipients of the annual 16 million ruble (about $510,000) grants for the creation of such centers. This is part of a five-year 4 billion ruble ($129 million) funding program that provides each of the selected 50 with as much as 80 million rubles ($2.6 million) per center. Telecom and Mass Communications Minister Nikolai Nikiforov briefly referred to the joint project at a May 23 meeting at his ministry, explaining that the endeavor comes within the focal areas of one of the Russian government?s most recent broader-target funding programs adopted on May 8, 2013...