OREANDA-NEWS. October 04, 2010. On 18-19 November 2010 Minsk will host the International Conference of Applied Science “2nd Belarusian Innovation Forum”. It is the main annual event held in Belarus to summarize and review the best national and foreign theories and experience in innovation-related activity. The key organizers of the Forum are the State Committee on Science and Technology of the Republic of Belarus, the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, several national ministries and state concerns, the executive committees of the six administrative regions and the Minsk Municipal Executive Committee, a few foreign embassies accredited in Belarus, the National Library of Belarus, the Belarusian Innovation Foundation, the Republican Centre for Technology Transfer, the Belarus Hi-Tech Park, business associations from across Belarus, etc.

This year’s Forum will be held with the support rendered by the Cooperation Foundation of the Central European Initiative (CEI), the UNDP Office in Belarus, and United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

The objectives of the Forum are

·         to appraise the present status of the national innovation system;

·         to exchange the world’s best experience and find guidelines towards boosted innovation-based development of Belarus;

·         to inform the national and international public about the progress made in the innovation-related activity across Belarus, the CIS and CEI countries.

Expected participants

The Forum is to bring together high-ranked officials from ministries, governmental bodies and agencies, academic and educational institutions, business associations, top managers of domestic and enterprises and companies, and those coming from the CIS and the CEI member countries, key experts from the UNDP, UNIDO and other international organizations.

A brief agenda of the Forum and the topics to be covered

·       Session 1. Policies and legislation applicable to innovation activity, introduction of a system of innovation-based development indices, establishment of the entities that belong to innovation infrastructure (technoparks, business incubators, innovation centres, technology transfer centres, venture entities); overview of the present state, problems and challenges, practicable solutions.

·       Session 2. The funding system of innovation projects (including commercialization of research).

·       Session 3. Policies and legislation in the domains of technology transfer and intellectual property protection.

·       Session 4. State-private partnership in technology transfer and establishment of innovation enterprises.

·       Session 5. Technology Foresight as an instrument for innovation-driven development.

·       Session 6. International integration in innovation-concerned activity.

·       Session 7. The Belarusian-Russian Applied Science Seminar on Collaboration in Science and Innovation (co-organized by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation).

·       Session 8. The Applied Science Seminar "Innovation Entrepreneurship of the Young".

·       Presentation of investment projects in the new and high technology sphere (held in the framework of the 1st Belarusian Venture Fair). There is a cyber-exhibition of investment projects on the Web portal of the Republican Centre for Technology Transfer.

The Forum will provide for the participation options as follows:

      ·        delivery of a plenary report;

      ·        presentation of a topic-wise report;

      ·        partaking (attending) with no presentations or reports.