ArmInfo. It is planned to establish joint enterprises in Armenia and Russia based on the 6 scientific programs of assistance to small and medium-sized businesses, Head of State Committee for Science under the Ministry of Education and Science of Armenia Samvel Harutyunyan stated summing up the results of work in 2016.
He recalled that an agreement on cooperation with the Foundation for Small Business Support in the Science and Technology Sphere, also known as the Bortnik Fund or FASIE was signed on June 27, 2016 in Moscow. The goal of the agreement is to develop small and medium innovative enterprises and scientific institutions within international cooperation and programs of bilateral exchange of technical-scientific employees and researchers.
In 2016 jointly with the Russian side a competition among scientific and innovative programs of SME was held for the first time in Armenia. A decision was made to finance 6 applications from the submitted 22. "It is for the first time we are financing projects, which will be directly applied in the economies of Armenia and Russia in future. Thus, the program will finish with establishment of joint enterprises on the territories of both countries", Harutyunyan noted. The Head of the Department stated that the Armenian side's investments in the implementation of joint project were quite small. At the same time the Russian side has already expressed intention to find investors upon the termination of the program, who will be ready to invest in the organization of production.
Harutyunyan informed that one of the financed programs envisages founding production of fertilizers based on free amino acids. The program was presented to the Prime Minister of Armenia who promised that the results of the program will be largely used in agriculture.
The second financed project proposes creating thermal sensors for NPP. The authors of the idea are serious and well-known people from Armenia and Russia. "I think this program is very promising", Harutyunyan stated. Besides, there are programs in the field of microbiology, medicine, and physics.
To note, the main areas for cooperation within the agreement are energy, information and communication technologies, biotechnologies and medicine, space and nuclear research. The agreement envisages implementation of joint scientific competitions, development and implementation of joint projects within Horizon 2020 program, strengthening cooperation among small and medium sized enterprises and scientific-research institutes.
