Anatoly Chubais’s lecture opened the Techentrepreneurship day at MISIS, organized by the fund for infrastructure and educational programs (FIEP RUSNANO) and ANO “eNANO”. The program included “Technology Entrepreneurship 4.0”, in which experts were invited to discuss challenges facing modern engineers, and breakthrough technology in the next ten to fifteen years. The Chairman of the RUSNANO’s Board, Anatoly Chubais gave an opening presentation and explained who technology entrepreneurs are and what challenges they must address in Russia and in the world.

"Entrepreneurship usually fits into a typical arrangement "entrepreneur plus money". You want to make a restaurant so you earn some money and then go ahead and create it, you want to open any other small business so you get some capital and open it, and if you have the necessary resources and entrepreneurial potential, the business will be successful. In a technological entrepreneurship in addition to these two points, it is also characterised by new products and technologies. Something is defined as technological entrepreneurship when something that didn't exist before comes about, something that was not even considered before. This radically changes the picture" – says Anatoly Chubais.

According to the head of RUSNANO company, the most successful businessman in the field of high-tech and intellectual resources usually has a wide range of engineering and business competences. The experience of joint university master’s programs to train engineers in the high-tech field, shows a demand for such multi-skilled specialists. In the future, most professions will need to possess knowledge and skills in various fields.

“At MISIS students receive a foundational education in the field of metallurgy, but so that they can make a headway in business in this field, they need to have a variety of competences - economic, financial, and legal, to name a few. This is a special quality that cannot be taught in one lecture. In the sphere of high technologies in recent times there is a complete mixing of all kinds of professions: doctors work with metallurgists, physicists work closely with biologists. So I think that in the future there will not be a need for a specialized profession or competence".  – said Anatoly Chubais.

Head of Project management and Innovation Department at ITMO University, Nina Yanykina noted that RUSNANO nanotechnology centers which are built across the country offer a wide range of opportunities for the development and implementation of interdisciplinary competencies. Today, they are becoming a network of centres of venture capital investments; the main objective is not so much in the development of Russian nanotechnology industry, but in facilitating the commercialization of technologies in this field.

“RUSNANO is one of the key innovation development institutions and one of few companies which serves as an investor for high-tech enterprises. To date, the volume of RUSNANO investments in this field is about 170 billion rubles, while the total capitalisation of invested projects is estimated at 300 billion. We often hear that modern development institutions in Russia are not effective enough, but with regard to RUSNANO, this is not the case” – says Nina Yanykina

The Department of Technology Management and Innovations at ITMO university organised a broadcast of Mr. Chubais’s lecture. A full recording is available on the organization’s website and on the online platform “E-education for nanotechnology industry”