Russia and Belarus discussed priority innovation programs

At the Belarusian-Russian conference that took place at the end of April 2012 in Minsk, the formation of a unified scientific and technological sphere of Belarus and Russia, improvement of the criteria for the List of Priority research and technology innovation programs and projects of the Union State were discussed.

The conference was organized by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation together with the Rossotrudnichestvo Office in Belarus and the State Committee for Science and Technology of the Republic of Belarus, Rossotrudnichestvo said.

Co-Chair of the conference from the Russian side was Sergey Iwaniec, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, and from the Belarusian side - Leonid Demidov, First Deputy Chairman of State Committee on Science and Technology of the Republic of Belarus.

In terms of the Belarus and Russia national strategies generality aimed at converting the economy to an innovative path of development, as well as considering a course agreed at the intergovernmental level on the development of Belarusian-Russian cooperation on a unified scientific and technological sphere creation, the participants reviewed the results of the joint scientific, technology and innovation activities of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus.

The main directions of state policy on national innovation systems formation and proposals for further development of Belarusian-Russian cooperation in innovation, improvement of the mechanisms for its implementation, practical guidelines for new science and technology developers were discussed at the conference. Innovation projects and programs to enhance collaboration in implementation of the Guidelines for the formation of a unified scientific and technological sphere of the Union State of Belarus and Russia were also discussed.

Conference participants expressed confidence that the agreements will have a positive influence on the process of Russian-Belarusian integration ties consolidation in science, technology and innovation.