Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University –
An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
The Moscow Startup Summit was held at SberCity, where the "SPbPU Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Development Model" was presented in the "Best University Practice" category as part of the Startup Summit Awards competition. It was ranked among the top three best practices for developing technological entrepreneurship. Over 100 Russian universities participated in the competition.
The project was prepared and presented by staff from the Higher School of Technological Entrepreneurship of the Advanced Engineering School of SPbPU "Digital Engineering" – Alexey Efimov, Executive Director of the Polytech Innovation Support and Development Fund and Associate Professor of the Higher School of Technological Entrepreneurship, and Artur Kireev, Acting Director of the Higher School of Technological Entrepreneurship and Associate Professor of the Higher School of Technological Entrepreneurship.
The awards to the SPbPU PISh representatives were presented by Olga Petrova, Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation.
The Higher School of Technological Entrepreneurship is a scientific, methodological, and coordinating center for the development of technological entrepreneurship at SPbPU. It actively participates in the development of the university and national ecosystem of technological entrepreneurship.
This practice aims to create an ecosystem of technological innovation that supports the emergence and development of new ideas, projects, and technology startups, and is focused on the development of both small and large innovative enterprises in national and international markets.
The ecosystem brings together structures and activities that help students become familiar with entrepreneurship, develop the necessary skills, and implement both their own projects and build a portfolio.
The model includes 4 levels of involvement of students and university staff in entrepreneurship.
Promoting Technological Entrepreneurship Development Scaling/Professional Training in Technological Entrepreneurship Internationalization
The goal of university-wide educational events is to develop students' basic soft skills necessary for entrepreneurship, as well as project management skills.
The second level is attended by students interested in defending their final theses in the "Startup as a Diploma" format, as well as participants in various competitive programs and accelerators.
An expert council supports students during the preparation of their final qualifying work as a startup. Defenses in the "Final Qualification as a Startup" format have been held at the Polytechnic University since 2021. A total of 59 students have defended their theses in this format.
The next stage is training specialists in a specialized master's program in technological entrepreneurship at the Higher School of Technological Entrepreneurship and the University of Entrepreneurs.
During their studies, students are given the opportunity to create and develop their own project, which could later become the basis for their own business. Their final project is either a technology startup or a research project. Upon completion of their studies, master's students present a portfolio of completed projects or a startup ready for launch.
The fourth level is working with projects with the aim of bringing them to the international level.
The goal of the international polytechnic accelerator is to select and develop projects for subsequent submission to the largest accelerators in China, India, Brazil, and the Middle East.
The overall goal of the model is to create a sustainable, end-to-end innovation environment that unites education, science, technology, and business, facilitates the generation and implementation of technology startups, and trains specialists capable of entrepreneurship in knowledge-intensive industries and digital transformation.
The model builds a continuous, practice-oriented trajectory from idea to scaling through direct interaction with industry and venture capital funds. This transforms Polytechnic University into a unified ecosystem where students at various stages of their studies can create projects with market potential.
Winning the competition once again confirmed the validity of SPbPU's strategy for developing technological entrepreneurship. The Russian Government views university technological entrepreneurship as one of the drivers for creating the conditions for achieving technological leadership. In this regard, one of the key objectives is to better familiarize the university's research teams with the opportunities for commercializing applied research results through startups, shared Artur Kireev.
Alexey Efimov added: "The Moscow Startup Summit Awards demonstrated that the most in-demand models for developing university technology entrepreneurship are systemic models of end-to-end engagement and support for startup initiatives, aimed at developing the university ecosystem in collaboration with educational and industrial partners."
This material was prepared with the support of a grant from the Russian Ministry of Education and Science as part of the Decade of Science and Technology.
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