The priorities and main objectives of AIRR were discussed at the strategic session

On April 4 and 5, at the Representative Office of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra in Moscow, delegates from the participating regions of the Association of Innovative Regions of Russia (AIRR) discussed the directions and priorities of the Association’s activities for 2024 and beyond.

At the federal and regional levels, various instruments for supporting innovation have been created. It is the job of the Association of Innovative Regions of Russia to highlight the best practices, help in their improvement and promotion. Today, 18 regions of Russia are members of AIRR. The Association’s activities ensure economic interaction between regions, promote interregional integration, and establish connections between regions and major financial institutions.

“At the strategic session, we assessed the work done by the Association, as well as the areas that we will develop in the future in accordance with the new agenda of scientific and technological development. The main tracks are interregional cooperation, analytical products, international cooperation and promotion of initiatives of Association participants at the federal level. It was important for us to hear the needs of the regions, especially since each of them has its own potential,” said AIRR Director Alexander Smekalin.

Today, AIRR's expertise is recognized at the federal level. The Association is included in working groups under the commissions of the State Council of the Russian Federation in the areas of “Science”, “Small and Medium Enterprises”, “Economics and Finance”, “Investments”.

AIRR is active at the regional level - trips of delegations to regions and thematic online meetings are organized on an ongoing basis. In the near future, representatives of AIRR will participate in a meeting of the personnel commission under the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Volga Federal District and present an expert position at similar events in the Siberian Federal District and the Central Federal District.

The Association is included in the Commission on Intellectual Property under the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of Russia. Thus, in February 2024, at a meeting of the Council on the topic of organizing an intellectual property management system in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, which was chaired by Valentina Matvienko, AIRR Director Alexander Smekalin, as an expert, expressed the position of the constituent entities on this issue.

AIRR actively promotes the agenda for the protection of intellectual property at the regional level. In Tomsk, with the participation of the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia, the Federal State Budgetary Institution "Federal Institute of Industrial Property", regions of the AIRR and banks, a round table was organized at which the development of the intellectual rights market in the regions participating in the AIRR was discussed. Alexander Smekalin took part in a discussion of the development of lending instruments secured by intellectual property at the Volga-Vyatka Department of the Bank of Russia in Nizhny Novgorod.

Interregional industry committees on infrastructure, international activities, intellectual property, legislative activity and support measures, and personnel issues have been formed within the AIRR. The range of the Association’s partners has been expanded, and work is in full swing to update the portfolio of analytical products, for example, in the area of ​​analyzing the effectiveness of innovation infrastructure in the regions and related best practices.

Participants in the strategic session planned to further assist in the development and implementation of scientific and technological development programs, analyze support measures and make proposals for improving the overall system of their administration, and promote the topic of creating and developing innovative scientific and technological centers and university campuses.







The Representative Office of KhMAO-Yugra in Moscow noted that the strategic session of AIRR was held at a high level, and wished the Association fruitful work and more participating regions, “as strategically important for the development of the country.”

Tatyana Ryazapova