The Belarusian State Committee on Science and Technology and the UN Development Program in Belarus plan to draft an intellectual property strategy for Belarus for 2021-2030, BelTA learned from the press service of the State Committee on Science and Technology.
The plan for drafting the strategy and the prospects for cooperation were discussed by Chairman of the State Committee on Science and Technology Aleksandr Shumilin and UNDP Resident Representative in Belarus Alexandra Solovieva in a meeting on 25 June. The parties also plan to develop the franchising market, technology and innovation support centers and the infrastructure of the intellectual property market.
“The State Committee on Science and Technology is interested in working with the UNDP to implement projects aimed at achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, including the one to set up a Center for Scientific and Technological Forecasting in Belarus using the foresight methodology,” Aleksandr Shumilin noted. According to him, such a center can be set up at the Belarusian Institute of System Analysis and Information Support for Scientific and Technical Sphere (BelISA).
According to Aleksandr Shumilin, another promising area of cooperation is setting up joint venture funds in Belarus in cooperation with the Belarusian Innovation Fund to implement innovative projects that will be in line with the priority areas and the State Committee on Science and Technology. Moreover, the Belarusian Innovation Fund is ready to act as a coordinator of public-private partnership (PPP) projects and team up with the UNDP accelerator laboratory to spur innovative development and find solutions in this field.
The State Committee on Science and Technology has considerable experience of cooperation with the UN agencies in the field of innovative development. In association with the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the committee carried out projects to review Belarus' innovative development (2011, 2017), the “Subregional Innovation Policy Outlook” project with direct involvement of the UNDP. In 2019-2020, the State Committee on Science and Technology and the UNECE completed projects to assess the effectiveness of the national innovation policy, expand the portfolio of its financial instruments, and attract technical assistance.
The UNECE raised $2.2 million in donations from the Swedish government for the implementation of the project to facilitate innovation policy in Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus in 2019-2022. The project is meant to promote innovative development of the six target countries, including Belarus.