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Good practice Imported

Skolkovo Foundation — Russia's State-Anchored Innovation City

Russia · Skolkovo · See the Russia profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 89% 48/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Russia's state-backed innovation city grew from its 2010 founding to roughly 2,500-2,700 resident companies with over $1.5bn in 2019 revenue and hundreds of foreign patents, but a 2013 prosecutors' probe found about $1.6bn in misused development funds.

2,500-2,700
Resident companies (2019-2021)
1.5 USD billion+
Resident-company revenue (2019)
1.6 USD billion
Misused development funds (2010-2012, reported 2013)
Skolkovo Foundation — Russia's State-Anchored Innovation City

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Skolkovo Foundation
Period
2010-2024
Keywords
innovation ecosystem, R&D commercialisation, venture capital, deep tech

Context

The Skolkovo Foundation was created by Russian presidential decree in 2010 to build a state-anchored innovation city, combining tax privileges, an IP centre and co-located R&D institutes including the MIT-partnered Skoltech.

Activities

By 2019-2021 the ecosystem had grown to roughly 2,500-2,700 resident companies, about 70 spun out of Skoltech.

Results

WIPO Magazine reported resident-company revenues exceeded USD 1.5 billion in 2019 (+40% year-on-year), with 159 international PCT patent applications and 205 foreign patents granted that year.

Conclusions

A November 2013 prosecutors' report documented unaccounted spending of about USD 1.6 billion in 2010-2012 development funds, leading to criminal charges and the dismissal of more than 200 staff.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Very high (> €5M)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
Skolkovo Foundation management, Skoltech researchers

Conditions for success

  • co-located R&D institutes
  • tax and customs privileges

Common failure modes

  • 2013 corruption probe found ~$1.6bn unaccounted spending
  • 200+ managers/staff dismissed

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

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