Partner funded Commercialization Initiative signed during joint ISTC – Closed Nuclear Cities Programme (CNCP) Seminar on Commercialization on March 23, 2007

On March 23 the ISTC signed a Contractual Letter Memorandum with the UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and the Mining and Chemical Kombinat spin-off company Collahit from the closed nuclear city of Zheleznogorsk in support of the ISTC Commercialization Initiative ‘Expansion of Collahit production for medical and cosmetology purposes’. The Collahit product is a collagen dressing used for bioactive treatment of wounds, with the unique ability to support the structure of regenerating skin, and containing anti-infectious properties.

The Moscow signing ceremony for the Commercialization Initiative on Collahit production took part during an ISTC Seminar on the commercialization of R&D results jointly organized with the UK DTI CNCP (www.cncp.ru). The seminar focused on aspects of the commercialization process, such as marketing and selling technologies, setting up and maintaining production in small enterprises and ways to implement commercialization initiatives through the ISTC and CNCP. The event was designed for the benefit of CIS entrepreneurs and scientists.

The UK DTI Closed Nuclear Cities Programme 
The CNCP Programme seeks to generate alternative lasting non-weapons related employment for scientists and technicians with proliferation sensitive skills and knowledge through promotion of viable civil enterprises. A major effort is being made to develop opportunities to commercialize such products and services in conjunction with UK and other foreign partners. Currently, CNCP works with 6 Russian Closed Cities and with Nuclear Institutes from Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. 

UK DTI has been an ISTC Partner since April 2002 and has already allocated more than $4.3 million through CNCP for the implementation of 15 projects. The Commercialization Initiative with Collahit has become the first project funded by UK DTI through the ISTC Commercialization Support Program mechanism, which focuses on commercializing developed technologies to create sustainable civilian workplaces for former WMD experts. Most of the projects financed by DTI / CNCP through the ISTC follow a market research and business planning phase and are devoted to the commercialization of scientific products. For example, one of the first successfully completed DTI Partner projects was ISTC Project #2824, implemented by Raster-Technology Ltd, Snezhinsk. It engaged former weapons staff in the civil sphere of polygraph machine building and the packaging industry. Raster-Technology Ltd now employs 20 staff in Snezhinsk successfully supplying Urals Region companies with packaging and other products.