Innovative projects to receive support from industrial companies

The Industrial Innovations association has been founded in Russia. The association will work to develop and promote corporate innovation projects, build cooperation with government authorities, and implement technologies to digitalize production.

A working group, consisting of representatives from Kirovsky Zavod, Krastsvetmet, and NefteTransService, ran ten online conferences over the course of a year and organized the first forum for industrial innovators in Magnitogorsk. It was then decided to scale up this positive experience and create an association.

The new organization aims to operate as a one-stop shop for startups looking to integrate into industrial enterprises and develop employees’ machine learning skills. The association plans to create a shared knowledge base for industrial innovation, bring together members’ efforts to work with external and internal startups, and introduce new formats for working with entrepreneurs.

“For more than three years, we have been developing an innovation ecosystem within the group: we launched the industry-specific Industrial Accelerator and the Kirov Group Ventures corporate venture fund, a fast track for pilot implementations, and an internal entrepreneurship program. We are now ready to share our experience and join forces with other key market players. The activities of all the association’s members will help us to study best practices for developing innovation within their corporations and in the country as a whole,” said Oleg Bochtarev, Director for Innovation at Kirovsky Zavod.