Oleksii Druhov, Professor at the AFM Department, Deputy Director of the first SID City Science Park in Lviv Region, which has recently been opened at Startup School, tells more about the project.
– So, the most important task of Science Park is the commercialization of Polytechnicians’ research projects, isn’t it? How will it be implemented? Have the first concrete steps already been taken? Which exactly?
– In fact, the task of Lviv Polytechnic Science Park is to combine scientific potential of academic staff, employees and students with practical needs of Ukrainian and international business. The result of it must be the creation of new products, services as well as opening of new enterprises and projects on the basis of Science Park. This will be the commercialization of research developments. As for the first steps, with the co-founders of Science Park and with the support and assistance of the Research Department of Lviv Polytechnic it was possible to determine the list of strategic priorities of its development and key scientific developments that will form the basis of Science Park activity. All these strategic priorities have been agreed with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.
– Science Park is a team of researchers who implement the latest ideas in practice. Have all Polytechnic researchers entered Science Park? If not, what are the requirements for participation? How many participants are there today?
– Science Park of Lviv Polytechnic National University was registered on June 5, so we are still forming a team. Park is open to everybody. The only requirement is to have interesting innovative ideas and strive to implement them. We know there are lots of such researchers at Polytechnic.
Science Park as a legal entity has its founders. The main one is Lviv Polytechnic, as well as Softserv Corporation, Gal-Kat ALC and other manufacturing and financial institutions of the region.
– What are the intentions of Science Park next activities?
– Now we are actively selecting research developments of Lviv Polytechnic and working with potential investors of Science Park. We have a very positive picture with the involvement of foreign investment. We are negotiating with potential investors from Denmark, Israel, Germany, Latvia and others. For example, the Ukrainian-Danish Center for Scientific and Technological Cooperation, established at Lviv Polytechnic, is headed by a well-known Danish entrepreneur Jacob Dalhoff. The Danes have extensive experience in developing and investing in innovative projects and are ready to help us. This center of international cooperation will be an element of Science Park ecosystem and I think there will be lots of such centers in the future.
– Have projects already been invested? If so, which ones? Who are their authors? And who is the investor?
– We managed to invest in printing personal protective equipment for doctors in response to COVID-19. The investor was the world organization Rotary International. Now, we have submitted two more projects to help doctors and all of us fight against coronavirus infection. SoftServe Corporation is ready to invest in the development of laser technology. Many Foreign Venture Capital Investors are looking for interesting ideas for innovative projects to invest, and we will actively cooperate with them.
