Grants for development and implementation of IT solutions in Russia

Main article: Benefits and support measures for IT companies in Russia

2024

The Russian authorities will assess the risks of implementing projects on import substitution of software, which are implemented for grants

In Russia, an additional risk assessment of software import substitution projects is planned, which are implemented with funds from state grants. The corresponding order was given on December 9, 2024 by the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation - the head of the government apparatus Dmitry Grigorenko.

As of the specified date states , 32 particularly significant projects received a gratuitous subsidy from in the form of a grant. Their total funding budget is about 30 billion, rubles of which two-thirds are grants - almost 20 billion rubles. All projects are developed and implemented at the sites of industrial competence centers (ICC). The progress of implementation is supervised by industry committees under the relevant ministries.

Dmitry Grigorenko held a meeting with the heads of industrial competence centers (ICC)

According to Grigorenko, by the beginning of December 2024, three solutions were successfully implemented within the framework of grant projects, in particular, a project to finalize the field design platform commissioned by Rosgeo JSC. It is claimed that the created Russian system allows more than 2.5 times to increase the operational efficiency of geological exploration. In addition, two more projects are nearing completion: software for the agro-industrial sector (production of dairy products) and software for managing shipbuilding and ship repair in the digital circuit. During 2025 and 2026, 26 grant products are expected to be delivered. At the same time, one of the projects experienced delays of several months due to a change of developer.

Additional review of grant projects is necessary to assess the risks in terms of timing and quality of execution. As Grigorenko notes, it is important not only to replace foreign products, but to make sure that domestic developments can be massively introduced and replicated. We are talking, among other things, about the development of the export direction.^[1]

The Ministry of Industry and Trade will allocate at least 183 million rubles for the opening of the Center for the Development of Industrial Robotics

At least 183 million rubles Ministry of Industry and Trade RUSSIAN FEDERATION will be allocated for the development and development of technological solutions in industrial, the to robotics introduction of robotic cells and complexes at enterprises and employee training. Russian organizations, legal entities can apply until individual entrepreneurs December 2, 2024. The operator of the grant competition is, Innopolis University which announced this on November 13, 2024.

Among the requirements for the participants of the grant competition are the work of the organization for 3 years, more than 20 employees on staff, experience in creating solutions or providing services in the field of industrial robotics, access to material and technical resources for the implementation of the center's program and others.

Participants in the competitive selection need to develop a program of activities for the future Center for the Development of Industrial Robotics. The program should include a list of measures, a financial plan with items of expenses and income, descriptions of robotic solutions being developed, as well as a list of partner organizations and a description of resource and personnel support, said Iskander Bariev, director of Innopolis University.

The winner of the competitive selection will receive 168.2 million rubles in 2025 and 15 million rubles in 2026 for the creation and implementation of the Center for the Development of Industrial Robotics. The grant size can be increased.

The Ministry of Digital Industry selected 52 particularly significant IT projects, which will be given grants of ₽19 billion

Ministry of Digital Development Russia formed a list of 52 priority technological initiatives to receive state funding in the amount of ₽19 billion. The results of the industry competition are presented in November 2024 at a meeting in. Federation Council

According to Interfax, the total budget of approved developments reaches ₽39,2 billion, where half of the costs will be borne by the state. The Presidium of the Government Commission will approve the final list of projects until December 10, 2024.

The Ministry of Digital Development has chosen 52 key IT projects, which will be provided with grants in the amount of 19 billion rubles

Deputy Minister of Digital Development of Russia Sergey Kuchushev noted the importance of creating scalable solutions available to a wide range of users after the initial implementation by the developer customer.

The competitive selection, initiated in September 2024, is undergoing a multi-stage examination at specialized competence centers. The industry commission considered 89 applications with a total value of ₽69,9 billion.

The grant support system for strategic information technologies has been in effect since 2022. The first competitive selection identified 183 priority projects, of which 32 initiatives received funding in the amount of ₽20 billion.

The state program is aimed at creating domestic software with high replication potential. Priority is given to developments that can find application in various sectors of the economy.

Financing is distributed through a network of industrial competence centers that coordinate the interaction of developers and customers of technological solutions. The mechanism ensures the targeted use of funds and control over the achievement of the declared results.

The program helps strengthen the country's technological sovereignty in strategically important areas.^[2]

The Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation launched the selection of particularly significant IT projects

The Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation in September 2024 announced the start of a new stage in the selection of especially significant IT projects. As part of this program, the state provides grants that cover up to 50% of the cost of projects aimed at replacing foreign software with Russian counterparts. The selection will last until September 18, 2024 (an application can be submitted here) , and the total amount of funding will be ₽6 billion.

As reported in the Telegram channel of the Ministry of Ministry of Digital Development, the key criterion for receiving support is the compliance of projects with priority areas of import substitution. Among them are the development and implementation of solutions for process control, engineering analysis, additive production, design of optical systems and other areas that require the replacement of foreign software. Grant-eligible projects must provide a complete and complete solution rather than a separate module. At the same time, the customer and the developer cannot be affiliated, and the exclusive rights to the product must remain with the developer after the implementation of the project.

According to the Ministry of Digital Development, projects that have passed the selection will be considered by special industrial centers of competence (ICC) and centers of competence for the development of system-wide and applied software (CDC). Further, the projects are sent for approval to industry committees, after which the Presidium of the Government Commission makes a final decision. The final results of the program will be announced by December 10, 2024.

Since 2022, when the program was launched, 32 IT projects have already received the status of particularly significant and used state support (by September 2024). Among them are developments in such areas as the design of products from polymer and composite materials, modeling of mechatron systems, engineering calculations and other areas. One of the key areas of selection in 2024 was the replacement of foreign industry solutions in production processes, data management and engineering calculations.^[3]

A state grant program for technological startups has been launched in Russia. They will be given 8 million rubles each

In June 2024, a state grant program for technology startups was launched in Russia, under which small innovative enterprises can receive funding in the amount of up to ₽8 million. The program is implemented by the Innovation Assistance Fund together with the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia as part of the federal project "Take-off - from a startup to an IPO." Read more here

In the Moscow region, the total amount of IT grants issued exceeded 1.5 billion rubles

High-tech Moscow area companies can get financial support from the region. Since the start of the program, the amount IT of grants has exceeded 1.5 billion. rubles This was announced on July 12, 2024 by the press service Ministries of Public Administration, Information Technologies and Communications of the Moscow Region.

IT grants are a support measure that helps develop the IT industry in our region, creating new jobs, and attract IT personnel. I note that as of July 2024, 21 agreements have already been signed with high-tech companies, and the amount of grants issued exceeded 1.5 billion rubles. In addition, IT companies in the Moscow region managed to attract more than 3.5 thousand new IT specialists, - said Lyudmila Bolataeva, First Deputy Prime Minister of the Moscow Region.

The Ministry of State Administration reminded that a company that is registered in the Moscow region can submit an online application, has at least 70% of the proceeds from the development of programs or the production of computer equipment and carries out its main activities in accordance with OKVED: 26.20, 62.01, 62.02, 62.03, 62.09, 63.11.1. At the same time, a subsidy is provided if at least 5 new highly qualified employees are accepted into the organization. In addition, new employees should not work in the Moscow region for at least 12 months before employment, including as self-employed and individual entrepreneurs.

Moscow region issued the first IT grant in 2024

An agreement was signed on the issuance of a grant situated near Moscow IT to the organization. Financial support from the region was received by a company providing application development and IT services. to consulting This was announced on April 18, 2024 Ministry of State Administration of the Moscow Region. in More. here

2023

IT grants helped Moscow Region companies attract more than 2 thousand new employees

Thirteen IT companies in the Moscow region received support from the Regional Government in 2023. Thanks to this, 2.3 thousand highly qualified specialists in the field of information technology began to work in the Moscow region. This was announced on January 15, 2024 by the press service of the Ministry of Public Administration, Information Technologies and Communications of the region.

In the Moscow region, a support measure was introduced for IT companies in the form of grants to pay salaries to new employees. This allows you to attract highly qualified specialists, which strengthens the potential of the IT industry in the region. Recently, an agreement was signed with a large company Ozon.Technologiya. She provided more than 1,000 jobs for IT specialists, - commented the vice-governor of the Moscow region Irina Kaklyugina.

Ozon.Technologiya is developing digital solutions that make online order delivery more affordable and efficient.

Also in December 2023, they signed agreements with Samolet Plus LLC and Digital Development LLC. These companies are developing IT solutions for real estate and construction.

In 2024, the issuance of grants to IT companies near Moscow will continue. Information on the beginning of the selection of applications will appear on the official websites of the Government of the Moscow Region, the Ministry of Public Administration, Information Technologies and Communications of the Moscow Region, as well as on the regional portal of public services.

The Ministry of State Administration reminded that financial support can be received by high-tech companies that are registered in the Moscow region and carry out their main activities in accordance with OKVED: 26.20, 62.01, 62.02, 62.03, 62.09, 63.11.1. At the same time, a subsidy is provided if at least 5 new highly qualified employees are accepted into the organization.

The Ministry of Digital Development for the year issued 19 billion rubles to particularly significant projects

In 2023, the Russian Ministry of Digital Development allocated grants totaling 19 billion rubles to support particularly significant projects (OZP) for the implementation of Russian solutions in the field of information technology. In total, 19 initiatives received financial support, as reported by the Ministry of Economic Development in early January 2024.

WBS refers to a project whose purpose is to eliminate the risks and consequences of sanctions in the current geopolitical situation. We are talking about replacing foreign decisions with Russian analogues and (or) about ensuring the accelerated development of the IT industry in Russia. Specially created industrial competence centers participate in the formation of the list of OZPs, and the list is approved by the presidium of the Government Commission for Digital Development. The minimum amount of the grant for OZP is 10 million rubles, the maximum is 6 billion rubles. The project implementation period is not less than 6 months and not more than 30 months.

It is noted that in 2023 the Russian Fund for the Development of Information Technologies (RFRIT) supported nine OZPs, allocating a total of more than 5.3 billion rubles. Skolkovo supported three projects, and the amount of funding exceeded 1.1 billion rubles. In particular, Skolkovo in 2023 allocated a grant to PJSC UAC for a project in which specialists will develop and implement an import-independent ERP solution for the aircraft industry (it will solve the problems of production management and product quality control). In addition, the Foundation for the Promotion of Innovation (FSI) allocates grants for UZP.

In 2024, as reported in the Ministry of Digital Development, the budget provides 10.4 billion rubles for grant support for OZP. About 800 million rubles will be allocated for grant support for startups, which is carried out by the FSI. Skolkovo plans to support at least 10 projects totaling approximately 3.1 billion rubles within the framework of the federal project "Digital Technologies." ref> Ministry of Digital Development in 2024 will support especially significant projects with grants in the amount of 10.4 billion rubles</ref>.

Skolkovo approved financing of AI projects for 1.6 billion rubles over the year

Skolkovo in 2023 approved the financing of AI projects for 1.6 billion rubles, of which over 840 million rubles of extrabudgetary investments, grant support for Skolkovo - more than 820 million rubles. Such data in the fund led January 17, 2024. Read more here.

Ministry of Digital Development: Since the beginning of the year, IT startups have been issued grants worth 600 million rubles

In 2022, IT startups were issued grants for 4.7 billion rubles, in January-November 2023 - only 600 million rubles. Such figures were presented by the Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation Maksut Shadayev on November 21, 2023 at a strategic session in the government on the national project "Data Economics."

As Kommersant writes with reference to this presentation, 2022 year the project 362 was supported by grants, in January-November 2023 - only 45. In total, 811 projects worth 10.13 billion rubles have been supported since 2019, according to the materials of the head of the Ministry of Ministry of Digital Development.

According to the document, by 2030, grant support for startups should reach 27 billion rubles with an annual investment of 4.5 billion rubles. In general, by 2030, the ministry expects to support at least 1,000 startups that will release at least 2,000 new implemented solutions and products. The Ministry of Digital Development expects to increase sales of solutions and products at the expense of the public sector. The property proposed to legally allow the conclusion of contracts of up to 10 million rubles with startups that received grant support.

However, market experts interviewed by the newspaper emphasize that grants will not close the market's needs for mature solutions. And the admission of startups to public procurement threatens to appear in the systems of government agencies not too high-quality products.

According to Konstantin Gibalo, venture partner of the Voskhod Foundation, the state's demand for IT products is associated with import substitution, therefore, "99% is not about innovations, technologies or new business models, but about replacing previously widely used foreign products."

Replacement product development is always the business of large IT players and integrators. They either invest themselves, or buy small players, and as a result, an imbalance has formed in the market, he added.[4]

The Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation will reduce IT grants from 80% to 50% of the project cost

In mid-November 2023, the Russian Ministry of Digital Development published a draft government decree proposing to reduce IT grants from 80% to 50% of the project cost. The department explains that the position of IT companies against the background of the policy of import substitution has already improved significantly.

The amount of co-financing of the project at the expense of the grant recipient is at least 50% of the project implementation estimate. The amount of co-financing of the project at the expense of the grant recipient for each stage of the project should also be at least 50% of the total project estimate, the document says, an excerpt from which is provided by TASS.

The representative of the Ministry of Digital Development Finance told Kommersant that the rule on a 50% share of co-financing was valid until the end of 2021, but then the threshold was lowered to speed up import substitution.

But Russian developers are closing the vacated niches, the demand for domestic software is growing. Russian analogues are already presented for 90% of solutions. These conditions allow us to return to the subsidy rules in force in 2021, the ministry said.

Anna Raizner, head of the committee for the development of financing for the IT industry of the Domestic Software ARPP, noted that the changes were caused by a reduction in the amount of budget financing for the industry. In addition, Ministry of Digital Development "does not hide that he decided to continue financing only particularly significant projects, according to the established practice, large or very large companies receive such support - customers who have enough resources and their own funds," the expert emphasized.

Raising the co-financing threshold from 20% to 50% looks like a protective measure in order to "attract more professional market participants who have a high level of financial stability," said Andrei Yatskov, advisor to the general director on legal issues of Zyfra Group of Companies.^[5]

Ministry of Economic Development launched a grant program for research centers in the field of AI for 3.8 billion rubles

On October 30, 2023, the Ministry of Economic Development announced the launch of a second wave of selection of research centers in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). In total, for the period 2023-2026, 3.8 billion rubles were allocated for these purposes in the Russian budget, the press service of the department said. Read more here.

Skolkovo has supported 31 microelectronics startups in 2 years. They received more than 1 billion rubles

In less than two years, the Skolkovo Foundation has provided 31 microelectronics startups with grants totaling more than 1 billion rubles. The press service of the fund told about this in mid-October 2023. Read more here.

Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation: There are no funds for new IT grants in the draft budget

The draft Russian budget for 2024 and the planning period 2025-2026. funds for new grants to IT companies are not included. This was announced on October 10, 2023 by the Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media Maksut Shadayev during a meeting of the State Duma Committee on Information Technologies.

To support new developments. Next year, funding for grants was halved from 5 billion to 2.4 billion rubles. At the same time, thanks to the Ministry of Finance, we increased financing for preferential loans by 3.3 billion rubles, - said the head of the Ministry of Ministry of Digital Development (quoted by Interfax).

According to him, grants are issued for two to three years, so these funds are enough to finance the commitments already made, but the government cannot provide additional grants "yet." Also, the minister, speaking about the increase in preferential IT loans, noted that the allocated funds will not be enough, given the increase in credit rates.

In full, we do not have enough of this money, taking into account the fact that the rate has increased in order to service all the loans issued too. Here we agreed with the Ministry of Finance that we will look for money as part of the execution, - added Maksut Shadayev.

Since July 2023, the Ministry of Digital Development has not issued IT grants: it was planned to update the composition of decision-making bodies and a pool of experts participating in the assessment of incoming applications, as well as to audit the decisions made on the issuance of grants in 2022-2023.

In September 2023, Maksut Shadayev said that the Ministry of Digital Development plans to issue IT grants to customers of import-substituting developments, and not to developers.

For us now, the most promising options are the issuance of grants to large customers for complex large projects related to the replacement of foreign solutions, the minister said then.[6]

Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation changes the procedure for allocating IT grants

On September 6, 2023, the Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation announced a change in the procedure for issuing grants for new developments in the field of information technology. This decision was preceded by the arrest of the Deputy Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media Maxim Parshin, who is suspected of receiving a bribe for helping to allocate grants.

Now we analyze the process, lay out, understand where there are some not optimal stages, steps, where we need to do something to make it even more transparent, competitive, where to exclude the possibility of some kind of influence, conditionally, one person, one expert on procedures. Such a complex process, that is, the re-assembly of the grant process, - said the head of the Ministry of Ministry of Digital Development Maksut Shadayev on September 6, 2023 .

According to him, the department is planned to complete the audit of the grant allocation processes by a maximum of mid-October 2023, and until the completion of the audit, new ones will not be issued.

Because we - already obvious - will change the procedure. We found an opportunity to make it more perfect, more participation, less workload, more transparency... Such a complex process - that is, the re-assembly of the grant process. Our question there is not that we are now checking some cases of unreasonable refusals or vice versa. Rather, we fully described all the processes, built a model. We look at where there are some conditionally bottlenecks, they need to be embroidered. We are discussing how to rebuild the procedure. Therefore, we will change the standard for this, - said Shadayev.

Earlier in 2023, Ministry of Digital Development announced that it would audit the decisions already made on the issuance of grants in 2022-2023 and cancel projects for which there are doubts about 100% purity^[7]

Delivery robot and digital mentor: For which IT projects Moscow allocated 114 million rubles

Since the beginning of 2023, 68 grants for testing innovations have been approved in Moscow. Their total amount amounted to 114 million rubles. Deputy Mayor of the capital Natalya Sergunina told about this on August 25, 2023. Read more here.

The Ministry of Digital Development of the Krasnoyarsk Territory distributed millions of grants for local IT companies

The Ministry of Digital Development of the Krasnoyarsk Territory summed up the results of a grant competition for the implementation of projects in the field of information technology and communications. Four Krasnoyarsk IT companies were included in the list of recipients of the grant from the regional budget. The press service of the department announced this on August 24, 2023. Read more here.

What IT projects in the field of construction are supported by RFRIT grants

In mid-August 2023, it became known what IT projects in the field of construction were supported by grants from the Russian Information Technology Development Fund (RFRIT). According to the head of the Fund, Alexander Pavlov, when foreign vendors began to leave the Russian market, RFRIT provided and continues to support domestic IT projects in the field of construction and housing and communal services. Read more here.

IT companies in the Amur Region will receive grant support for the development and implementation of IT solutions

In the fall of 2023, the Ministry of Digital Development and Communications of the Amur Region plans to hold a competition for the right to receive a grant in the form of a subsidy for individual entrepreneurs and organizations operating in the field of information technology in order to support projects for the development and implementation of Russian solutions in the field of information technology. This was announced on August 14, 2023 by representatives of the Ministry of Digital Science and the Amur Region.

"There are no special restrictions on the topic of projects, these may be research in the field of artificial intelligence, the development of information infrastructure, cybersecurity, digital transformation and other areas in the field of IT. The main thing is that the project would be relevant and aimed at the socio-economic development of our region, "said Anna Skok, Deputy Minister of Digital Development and Communications of the Amur Region.

Individual entrepreneurs and organizations registered and operating in the Amur Region will be able to participate in the selection. The maximum amount of support for one project is determined in the amount of 500 thousand rubles.

Additional information on the rules and conditions of participation in the competition will be provided in the near future on the official website and social networks of the Ministry of Digital Development of the Amur Region.

Skolkovo approved 5 AI implementation projects worth more than 300 million rubles. List

The Skolkovo Foundation approved five projects totaling more than 300 million rubles as part of the implementation of the federal project "Artificial Intelligence" of the national project "Digital Economy." The press service of the Ministry of Economic Development announced this on July 26, 2023. The following companies are recognized as winners.

• "Atenta" with the project of an intelligent decision support system based on AI. The platform allows you to solve the problem of building a system architecture for working with large amounts of organization data and transfer the load of taking hundreds of thousands of routine operational actions of employees to artificial intelligence. The developer of innovative software is WestLink.
• "RTK IT" won with the project of an automated system of inventory of air communication lines using unmanned aerial vehicles and AI technologies. The developer is Airspector.
• "Center for Marine Research of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov" - an ensemble forecasting system for the ice situation based on artificial intelligence. The developer is Marine Information Technologies.
• "Tyrmen Group" is a project of analytical system of vehicle tires. The developer is Picklem.
• 220 Volt Scientific and Production Enterprise is a project for introducing a self-learning intelligent production control system for unique non-serial electrical products of the SPPR class (decision support system). The developer is Lexema.

In 2023, Skolkovo plans to support at least nine AI projects worth about 900 million rubles. To receive a grant, it is necessary to show that the solution is in demand on the market, has high economic efficiency and the potential for replication, said Igor Drozdov, chairman of the board of the Skolkovo Foundation.

Ministry of Digital Development of Chelyabinsk region summed up the results of the competitive selection for the development of domestic IT solutions in the amount of 1.8 million rubles

Ministry of Digital Development of the Chelyabinsk region on July 25, 2023, she shared the results of the competitive selection for the development of domestic IT solutions in the amount of 1.8 million rubles.

This is the second competitive selection of grant recipients in the form of subsidies. According to the results of the competition, three IT companies receive support in the amount of 600 thousand rubles each.

Thanks to Governor Alexei Leonidovich Teksler and the Government of the Chelyabinsk Region, active support for IT and telecom industries in the region continues. The competition is aimed at developing regional IT solutions, as well as increasing jobs in IT companies. In total, 7 applications were accepted, among which the commission chose 3 winners. An agreement is concluded with the winners, after which the funds will go to the account of organizations, - said Igor Fetisov, Minister of Information Technologies, Communications and Digital Development of the Chelyabinsk Region.

The winners in terms of the total number of points scored were:

1. Kitaktiv Company - a project of a system that allows automating the processes of maintenance and remote control of equipment operation in medical organizations;
2. Software Systems has submitted an application with the CRM system WS.auto rental to automate business processes and document management in long-term vehicle rental companies;
3. Insider company presented to the competition a draft system for monitoring workplaces, HR analytics and a full cycle of interaction with personnel, including diagnostics and control of work, and much more.

Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation suspended the issuance of IT grants after the arrest of the deputy minister

On July 17, 2023, the Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation announced the suspension of the issuance of grants for new developments in the field of information technology. This decision was preceded by the arrest of the Deputy Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media Maxim Parshin.

Grants will not be issued until September 1, 2023. In addition, the Ministry of Digital Ministry of Digital Development announced that it will conduct an independent assessment of the competencies of RFRIT employees (the main grant operator) and update the composition of decision-making bodies and the pool of experts participating in the assessment of incoming applications.

Also, the department is going to audit the decisions made on the issuance of grants in 2022-2023. and cancel projects for which there are doubts about 100% purity. It is planned to optimize the processes of making decisions on the issuance of grants to completely exclude the influence of employees of the Ministry of Digital Development on them, ensure transparency and publicity of all stages of launching and implementing such projects. The ministry promises to check the validity of all refusals to support projects and the presence of a conflict of interest.

The Ministry of Digital Development will create a verification commission headed by Maksut Shadayev, which will include authorized representatives of the main associations in the IT sphere (APKIT, Russoft, ARPP Fatherland Software, etc.) and expert organizations. According to the statement of the department, all complaints and proposals for optimizing processes and procedures will be considered. The results of the analysis of processes and audit of projects will be published, the press service of the Ministry of Digital Development.

Feedback will be carried out through the e-mail of Maksut Shadayev: m.shadaev@digital.gov.ru. You can send suggestions and complaints to this address. Complete confidentiality of such appeals is guaranteed, added to the Ministry of Digital Development.

State Duma deputy Alexander Khinshtein wrote that Deputy Head of the Ministry of Digital Development Maxim Parshin was detained red-handed while receiving a bribe of 3.5 million rubles for helping to allocate certain grants. This incident will not affect the work of the ministry, wrote the head of the Ministry of Ministry of Digital Development Maksut Shadayev in a chat for employees. According to him, the situation is "extremely difficult" and arrows will fly to the ministry "now," but employees need to "endure."^[8]

The Ministry of State Administration of the Moscow Region will issue grants to two more high-tech companies

The Ministry of State Administration of the Moscow Region on June 2, 2023 announced the signing of an agreement on the issuance of grants with two more high-tech companies.

We create the most favorable conditions for the work and development of the IT industry. Since the beginning of the year, more than 100 new specialists have begun working in IT companies near Moscow that have received grants, "said Nadezhda Kurtyanik, Minister of Public Administration, Information Technologies and Communications of the Moscow Region. - Thanks to attracting new specialists, 7 high-tech companies have already received support from the Moscow region.

Within the framework of the signed agreements, grant support will be received by LLC "Expirium" and LLC "" Heliosoftware- development companies. computer software

Expirium LLC, part of ANCOR Group of Companies, is engaged in the development and support of the Russian personnel selection management system. The platform helps clients automate the process of finding and selecting personnel, - said Olga Parfenova, director of Expirium LLC.

Our developers are actively involved in the creation of software products. The receipt of a grant by Heliosoft LLC (ANCOR Group of Companies) has become an important element of state support aimed at stimulating and developing import substitution projects in the field of information technology, "said Andrei Borisov, director of Heliosoft LLC.

For June 2023, the second selection of applications in 2023 is underway. It began on April 3 and will last until June 30.

Mishustin approved the issuance of grants to educational and production clusters training specialists in electronics and robots

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a decree expanding the program to support educational and production clusters. The press service of the Government of the Russian Federation announced this on May 15, 2023.

In accordance with the document, grant support for educational and production clusters, which are created on the basis of college partnerships with specialized enterprises, will now be provided to projects that train future specialists in the electronic industry and the robotics industry. Grants will continue to be issued to clusters preparing personnel in 16 key areas. Among them - mechanical engineering, agriculture, metallurgy, construction, atomic and chemical spheres, information technologies.

With state support, 70 more educational and production centers will appear, and more young people in new areas will be able to get a demanded specialty, - said Mikhail Mishustin at a meeting with Deputy Prime Ministers on May 15, 2023, adding that the federal budget for supporting educational and production clusters in 2023 provides for 7 billion rubles.

Educational and production clusters are created within the framework of the federal project "Professionalism." The main goals of this work are to train future specialists for the targeted order of enterprises, updating educational programs and curricula, and improving the level of qualifications of teachers. All this will help to bring the system of secondary vocational education as close as possible to the needs and needs of employers, will make it possible to form a flow of specialists in areas that are in demand by business, and graduates - to find work faster. To provide, within the framework of the federal project "Professionalism," the preparation until 2028 of at least 1 million qualified workers and middle-level specialists to provide key sectors of the economy, including the electronic industry and the robotics industry, the Cabinet of Ministers was instructed by Russian President Vladimir Putin following the message to the Federal Assembly in 2023.^[9]

Government of the Russian Federation Resolution of May 4, 2023 No. 698

Skolkovo will support AI implementation projects in 2023 by more than 900 million rubles

The Skolkovo Foundation in 2023 will continue to support projects of Russian companies introducing domestic solutions based on artificial intelligence technologies. The size of the grant will be from 20 to 100 million rubles. The support measure is provided for by the federal project "Artificial Intelligence" of the national program "Digital Economy of Russia." The curator of the direction is Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko. The fund announced this on April 3, 2023. Read more here.

Mishustin announced an increase in grants for engineering schools 4 times. Up to 10 billion rubles

On February 20, 2023, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin announced a 4-fold increase in funding for advanced engineering schools in Russia. In 2022, investments were measured at 2.5 billion rubles. Read more here.

Ministry of Economic Development expands the program of "growing up" IT companies

On February 13, 2023, it became known that the Ministry of Economic Development was expanding the grant program for "growing up" IT companies within the framework of the federal project "Takeoff - from a startup to an IPO." It involves 18 largest corporations, including Gazprom, Rosneft, Russian Railways and Rosatom. Read more here.

The recipients of RFRIT grants for the development and implementation of Russian IT solutions have been identified. The largest amount of support - 3.6 billion rubles

RFRIT published information on the conclusion of agreements on the provision of grants for the development and implementation of domestic IT solutions for competitive selection within the framework of government decree of May 3, 2019 No. 550 (PP-550). Within the framework of the selection, which took place since April 2022, 45 projects for the development and implementation for a total amount of support of more than 13.67 billion rubles were identified as winners. For a complete list of winners, see the table below.

No. N/n	Name of the grant recipient	Project name	Direction of support	Grant amount, RUB	Project Implementation Period
1.	Avada Systems Limited Liability Company	Revising IoT the AWADA Platform	Development	32,812,500,00	25.06.2024
2.	Automobile Plant Limited Liability Company GAS	Elimination of Gaps, data Completeness of Product at Various Stages of Life Cycle and Implementation of Production Equipment Monitoring System at GAZ Group Production Sites	Implementation	379 734 295,00	31.05.2025
3.	Axelot-L Limited Liability Company	Rework of the Process Control System of the Modern Warehouse AXELOT WMS E5	Development	45 226 942.20	31.05.2024
4.	Limited Liability Company	BOSS. Human Resources Systems Development of the Russian HR BOSS-NSM platform	Development	79 444 499.04	30.06.2024
5.	Limited Liability Company "" WEB Control DC	sPACE|Development	48 149 676.21	28.02.2024
6.	IMSAT| Development of a system for planning, monitoring and control of production process projects in the development of complex technical products based on mental maps	Development	50 576 776.32	31.07.2024
7.	Datareon| Rework of Integration Platform for Datareon Platform Enterprise Master Data Management	Development	38 863 992.00	31.05.2024
8.	Iventiches Limited Liability Company	Revising the no code of the Eventious platform and corporate talent management systems and internal corporate communication based on it	Development	62,460,000,00	31.01.2024
9.	Infocom-S Limited Liability Company	Modification of Darvis Cross-Platform PSIM System for Industrial Safety	Development	20,000,000,00	30.04.2024
10.	Limited Liability Company KONSIST""	Development of Industry Solution TURBO Hotel for Comprehensive Hotel Automation Based on Domestic Program COMPUTER for Platform TURBO X Version 10	Development	50,000,000,00	31.12.2023
11.	Concern Kalashnikov Joint Stock Company	Rework and Implementation of a Unified Corporate Product Lifecycle Management System on a Domestic Platform	Implementation	1 688 800 000,00	31.05.2025
12.	KORUS Consulting SRM Limited Liability Company	Development of Digital Logistics Platform for Automation of Supply Chain Management, including Logistics and Warehouse Processes	Development	99 800 780.00	29.02.2024
13.	Kribrum Joint Stock Company	Development of a system for analyzing and visualizing disparate data, including data from social networks "Kribrum. OSINT "	Development	82 374 960.42	31.05.2024
14.	Limited Liability Company "Krosstech Solutions Group"	Revision of domestic software: "Docs Security Suite"	Development	89 198 204.51	30.09.2023
15.	Federal State Unitary Enterprise Krylovsky State Scientific Center""	Implementation of a system of dynamic modeling of technical systems based on a software complex Simintech with adaptation software to solve the problems of creating power installations of marine equipment with electric propulsion	Implementation	128 000 000,00	30.06.2025
16.	Federal State Unitary Enterprise Krylovsky State Scientific Center	Implementation of a virtual modeling system based on the engineering analysis program package Logos	Implementation	86 578 000.00	31.05.2025
17.	Limited Liability Company Logic of Business	Revision of the Russian ECM Logic Platform	Development	100 000 000,00	26.06.2024
18.	METROVAGONMASH Joint Stock Company	SmartDiagnostics	Implementation	896 593 259,00	29.06.2025
19.	Modum Lab Limited Liability Company	Modification of the Modum Education Platform Software Complex in Terms of the Simulator Distribution Module	Development	20,000,000,00	31.08.2023
20.	Naumen consulting| Finalizing a Comprehensive AI Digital Platform for CX Customer Naumen Experience Management	Development	20,000,000,00	18.12.2023
21.	Joint-Stock Company "Scientific and Production Concern" Engineering Technologies "	Revision and implementation of a digital platform for design and technological preparation of production in JSC" NPK "Tekhmash" and enterprises included in its control loop, based on domestic software "	Implementation	354 980 640,64	16.04.2025
22.	Novolabsystem Limited Liability Company	Development of a microbiological information system for digitalization of microbiological laboratory activities under import substitution conditions operating on the system software of Russian manufacturers free software and (open source system software), with image formation and storage function for subsequent recognition of microorganism colonies with|AI|Development	39 770 440,20	30.04.2024
23.	Novye Telecom Solutions Limited Liability Company	Software refinement of the LTE NTS-VRAN protocol stack and control system module to ensure the guaranteed delivery of specialized traffic for centralized end-device management as part of a comprehensive solution of industrial private LTE networks	100 000 000,00	24.07.2024
24.	Joint-Stock Company "United Engine Corporation"	Rework and implementation of production and supply chain management system at machine-building enterprises with internal cooperation	Implementation	764 000 000,00	31.03.2026
25.	Joint Stock Company "United Shipbuilding Corporation"	Revision and implementation of domestic heavy-class shipbuilding CAD as an environment for design and design and technological preparation of production	Implementation	3 602 739 106,00	30.11.2026
26.	Onega Shipbuilding and Ship Repair Plant Joint Stock Company	Implementation of the Global-Marine: Shipbuilding and Ship Repair Management System	Implementation	246 000 000,00	29.11.2024
27.	Polet Limited Liability Company	Design and development of Retail Suite.Global software: import-independent industry modular ERP system designed to automate and digitalize operational activities and manage processes of medium and large retail enterprises (retail chains) based on modern digital technologies Artificial Intelligence (Artificial Intelligence), Machine Learning (Machine Learning), storage systems Big Data	Development	99 944 537.56	31.12.2023
28.	RBS consulting Limited Liability Company	Developing a communicative environment for the medical community based on the fundamental discipline "Human Anatomy" (for all types, levels and forms of medical education)	Development	61 024 027.14	31.07.2024
29.	Rosgeologia Joint Stock Company	Rework of the Field Design Platform	Implementation	47,000,000,00	25.12.2023
30.	Rostelecom Joint Stock Company	4G Mobile Network Core	Implementation	1 006 000 000,00	31.03.2025
31.	RUSTEK Limited Liability Company	Revision of the digital cloud automation service platform based on RUSTEK-ESU and RUSTEK products (No. 6672 and No. 981 in the Register)	Development	70 000 000.00	29.12.2023
32.	Cyberfizics Limited Liability Company	CyberStudio Software Refinement - Platforms for Predictive Equipment Analytics and Process Mode Optimization	Development	56 613 390.35	29.12.2023
33.	Sensor-Tech Limited Liability Company	Surdo-Help Software Development: Communication System for Hearing Impaired People	Development	56,000,000,00	27.05.2024
34.	Sintelli Limited Liability Company	Refinement of Chemoinformatics Software for Solving Problems of Organic and Medical Chemistry	Development	47,675,000,00	31.01.2024
35.	Textel Limited Liability Company	Rework of ARSHIN Software for Size Updating in the Garment Industry	Development	40 263 227.00	31.05.2024
36.	TOT SYSTEMS Limited Liability Company	Development of the TOT Project Project Accounting and Management System based on its own VRM platform	Development	46 069 226.00	30.04.2024
37.	Focus Technology Limited Liability Company	Decision Support System for Shopping Centers , Retail and Airports Based on Integrated Benchmark Platform for Business Indicators of Trading Facilities	Development	29 017 652.50	31.01.2024
38.	Holmont Business Solutions Limited Liability Company	DocsRiver Print Control System Development	Development	20,000,000,00	24.12.2023
39.	Limited Liability Company Haulmont Samara""	Development of Amplicode platform for creating scalable, widely applicable enterprise applications based on modern technologies open source with	Development	172 612 445,00	31.03.2024
40.	Central Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering Joint Stock Company	Development of the Unified Information Environment of Roscosmos State Corporation for Life Cycle Management of Rocket and Space Technology Products	Implementation	2 200 788 199,93	30.06.2025
41.	Digital Industrial Platform Limited Liability Company	Modernization of Industrial Internet of Things Platform for Oil and Gas Industry	Development	200 000 000,00	30.06.2023
42.	Limited Liability Company "Clean Energy"	BIMAR SYSTEM	Development	23 893 729.00	31.05.2024
43.	Limited Liability Company UNICORN""	Ujin Platform	Development	258 088 000,00	31.03.2024
44.	Adeptic Plus Limited Liability Company	Development of Adeptik AP Long-Term Extended Production Planning (APS) System	Development	62,500,000,00	24.04.2024
45.	Test IT Limited Liability Company	Rework of Test IT 5.0 Software Testing Management System	Development	62,500,000,00	24.04.2024

Of the winners, 33 projects are for the development of domestic IT solutions, and the rest are for implementation, and the latter account for the overwhelming amount of allocated grants.

Several organizations from the published list receive grants of more than 1 billion rubles. Among them, the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) with a project to refine and implement domestic heavy-class shipbuilding CAD as an environment for design and design and technological preparation of production. Support of 3.6 billion rubles is allocated for this. Starting from 2027, this software solution is planned to be replicated at design bureaus, shipyards, ship repair enterprises of the USC group^[10].

In July 2022, at a strategic session with Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko in shipbuilding, in particular, the cessation of supplies of foreign software and the lack of technical support was identified as one of the key problems, and the need to ensure automation of the design of marine equipment facilities in the context of withdrawal from the market of foreign vendors is a key priority. Among the imported software that needs to be replaced are DS Enovia, Primavera, Autocad, Ansys, Siemens TeamCenter, etc.

A grant worth about 2.2 billion rubles went to the Central Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering to develop a unified information environment for Roscosmos Group of Companies for life cycle management of rocket and space technology products.

Almost 1.7 billion will be received by the Kalashnikov Concern for the revision and implementation of a unified corporate product lifecycle management system on a domestic platform. And about 1 billion rubles is intended for Rostelecom to introduce the core of the 4G mobile network.

The above projects with the largest grants belong to the implementation track. And of the development projects, the largest grant - about 258 million rubles - is allocated to the company Unicorn"" for the platform. Ujin Support of 200 million rubles through RFRIT is received by "" Digital Industrial Platform to modernize the platform industrial internet of things for the oil and gas industry. The third largest grant - worth about 172.6 million rubles - went to "" Haulmont Samara to develop the Amplicode platform for creating scalable, widely applicable corporate applications based on modern technologies with. open source

The deadlines for the completion of most projects that will be supported by RFRIT grants are designated 2024-2025. Two projects are designed for a period until 2026: the aforementioned CAD for USC, as well as the project of the United Engine Corporation to finalize and implement a production and supply chain management system at machine-building enterprises with internal cooperation.

As for the selected projects, in particular, for the implementation of domestic IT solutions, which received an overwhelming amount of grants, in accordance with the new requirements of 2022, the necessary condition for receiving a RFRIT grant is the presence of a project in the list of especially significant (WBS). Projects assigned to it by the government commission on digital development have such a status.

Industrial competence centers (ICCs), created in 2022 at the initiative of the government, which included representatives of customers of IT solutions - market leaders, took part in the formation of the list of particularly significant ones. The ICCs form a list of projects that are further considered and agreed by industry committees, and after approval by the Presidium of the Legal Commission on Digital Development, these projects are submitted to grant competitions held by the RFRIT and the Skolkovo Foundation.

RFRIT in December reported that the volume of grant support for OZP passed through it in 2022 amounted to 11.6 billion rubles. In total, 36 such projects were announced in 2022, of which RFRIT supported 12^[11].

And the Skolkovo Foundation, in particular, launched a competition to support OZP in November 2022 with a grant volume of 2.4 billion rubles^[12].

The RFRIT told TAdviser that applications for grant funding for projects to refine and implement IT solutions are ongoing. As before, in accordance with the requirement of the tender documentation, the necessary condition for obtaining a grant is the presence of a project in the list of particularly significant projects.

Acceptance of new applications for grant financing of projects for the development of IT solutions, carried out through the portal of Public services (EPGU), was temporarily suspended on November 7. This is due to a significant excess of the request for financing the total amount of fund funds available for distribution, the RFRIT recalled.

In December, the Digital Development Commission also approved the New Industrial Software and New System-Wide Software roadmaps. They included more than 300 projects for import substitution of foreign software^[13]

Most of them (totaling more than 200 billion rubles) are sold by companies at their own expense. For many of them, agreements will be concluded with the government to create conditions for guaranteed demand for products. And the rest of the projects involve attracting credit (about 20 billion rubles) and grant (more than 23 billion rubles) funds. As of mid-December, the companies were at the final stage of concluding a grant agreement with RFRIT and the Skolkovo Foundation, according to a statement on the government's website.

The full list of these projects as of mid-January has not been published. The roadmap "New Industrial Software" includes, for example, the domestic shipbuilding CAD for USC, which received the largest grant from the RFRIT from the published list of winners of the 2022 competitive selection.

2022

The Ministry of Economic Development issued IT companies grants for 4.7 billion rubles

In 2022, the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation issued grants to 32 technology companies in the amount of 4.7 billion rubles. This was announced by the press service of the department on December 26, 2022.

They noted that projects that passed all the stages of assessment stipulated by the competitive selection were supported. We are talking about a grant program to create tools for improving the products of technology companies for the requirements of large corporations is being implemented within the framework of the federal project "Take-off - from a startup to an IPO," supervised by First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov.

The main goal of the program is to support projects of technology companies related to the refinement, creation of production and the introduction of new products for the tasks of Russian corporations.

The grant program, operated by the ANO Center for Engineering and Innovation Support, has been implemented since May 2022. Applications for participation in the "growing" program, within the framework of the third stage, are accepted until March 1, 2023 on the website of the ANO "Center for Engineering and Innovation Support."

The deputy head of the Ministry of Economic Development Maxim Kolesnikov noted that work on the grant program will continue in 2023. According to him, this initiative has already shown its effectiveness. Its result will be "strengthening technological sovereignty in various sectors of the economy." In particular, we are talking about products that relate to critical infrastructure and high-tech production, Kolesnikov emphasized.

Earlier it became known that the Ministry of Digital Development proposes to allocate 14 billion rubles from the Reserve Fund to support IT companies under sanctions. The funds in the form of grants will be distributed by the Fund for Assistance to the Development of Small Forms of Enterprises in the Scientific and Technical Sphere (Bortnik Fund), the Fund for the Development of the Center for the Development and Commercialization of New Technologies (Skolkovo Fund) and the Russian Fund for the Development of Information Technologies (RFRIT).

The Skolkovo Foundation is ordered to stop the issuance of grants for the introduction of Russian IT products. The money will be distributed in another way

The Ministry of Digital Development asked the Skolkovo Foundation to "immediately suspend" the distribution of funds for projects to which the fund awarded grant support based on the results of competitive selection. Such a request is contained in a letter signed by Deputy Minister of Digital Development Maxim Parshin to the Skolkovo Foundation dated October 31, 2022. TAdviser got acquainted with the content of the letter.

The request of the department is explained by the fact that following the meeting of the legal commission on digital development on October 27, it was decided to fully use the budget funds brought to the Skolkovo fund for 2022 and the planning period 2023-2024. as part of the government decree of May 3, 2019 No. 555 (PP-555), for grant support of approved projects to replace foreign industry with Russian analogues formed within the framework of industrial competence centers (ICC). We are talking about projects that the presidium of the legal commission defined as a list of especially significant ones.

In the same letter, Ministry of Digital Development asked the Skolkovo Foundation no later than November 1 to provide information on the balances of the subsidy funds not transferred to the winners of the competitive selection, and copies of all the minutes of the meetings of the fund's competition commission, which determined the winners in 2022.

PP-555 approves the rules for granting subsidies in support of projects to transform priority sectors of the economy and social sphere based on the introduction of domestic products, services and platform solutions created on the basis of "end-to-end" digital technologies.

Within the framework of the federal project "Digital Technologies" and in accordance with PP-555, the Skolkovo Foundation supports projects for the first large-scale implementation of Russian solutions in the IT field. Subsidies are provided based on the results of the competition to customers who pilot the introduction of domestic products, services and platform solutions based on digital technologies and aimed, among other things, at import substitution of foreign software or software and hardware systems. The goals of such implementations should be to transform technological or business processes in their activities or the activities of their affiliates or to use the Russian solution to provide digital services or improve their own product.

In early April 2022, we recall that Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a decree approving the allocation of 14 billion rubles to support the IT industry through the Skolkovo Fund, RFRIT and [[the Bortnik Fund. We are talking about grants for the development and implementation of Russian IT solutions.

The largest amount of this support - up to 10.8 billion rubles in 2022 - was supposed to go through the Russian Information Technology Development Fund (RFRIT). The Bortnik Fund in 2022 was planned to allocate 2 billion rubles to support projects of small enterprises in the field of digital solutions. This track is focused on supporting enterprises planning to refine or scale their own digital solutions, products or platforms.

And the Skolkovo fund was originally supposed to receive 1.2 billion rubles. But a little later, changes were made to the government decree establishing the maximum amount of the grant for companies implementing advanced Russian solutions created on the basis of digital technologies from 120 to 300 million rubles, and the total amount of funding for the program for 2022 - up to 2.4 billion rubles.

The Ministry of Digital Development can not clarify to TAdviser whether the approach to grants, set out in a letter addressed to the Skolkovo Foundation, applies to both the RFRIT and the Bortnik Foundation. The department also did not provide any information about the already distributed and remaining subsidies. The Ministry of Digital Development said that the decisions of the Presidium of the Commission on the ICC are confidential and not subject to disclosure. But any official documents in the public domain establishing this moment could not be found. The Skolkovo Foundation also did not comment on this topic.

On November 7, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko, at a meeting in the government with Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, reported that the Ministry of Digital Development would allocate more than 28 billion rubles by the end of the year for the implementation of projects for import substitution of software within the ICC. And in October, at a webinar with the participation of the Ministry of Digital Development Science, information was heard that funds for ICC projects and funds for RFRIT grants were different budgets. But their amounts were not announced.

The RFRIT competition for the development of Russian IT solutions, we recall, was announced in April 2022 and later linked the work on applications for competitive selection with the work on the selection of projects within the ICC in relation to large customers. The head of one of the IT companies applying for a PP-555 grant tells TAdviser that in the IT market many players have long had the expectation that as a result, the budgets intended for projects within the PP-555 will be redirected to the needs of the ICC and competence centers for the development of Russian system-wide and applied software (CDC), which were created at the initiative of the government.

There is talk that such agreements were reached at the highest level between the Ministry of Digital Development and the government, and they are connected with the fact that against the background of the departure of foreign IT vendors from Russia, Russian industrial enterprises have problems, they need to switch to Russian solutions as soon as possible, - said the interlocutor of TAdviser.

This approach is undoubtedly correct, he added: everything possible must be done so that the industry does not stand up, but the question is that the work on grants and its connection with work within the ICC looks not transparent enough for the market. According to the head of the IT company, this also applies to the redistribution of funds by PP-555 in favor of the ICC, and the previously held selection of participants in the ICC and CDC, etc. He says the same about the work of the RFRIT grant committees, according to the results of which the winners of the competitive selection should be determined. In particular, it was assumed that grant committees would be an open event that anyone could observe, and now everything goes to the fact that there will be no such opportunity, the interlocutor of TAdviser notes.

In Ministry of Digital Development, earlier public non-disclosure of certain data related to the ICC and the CDC was associated with risks against the background of the current geopolitical situation.

The head of another IT company applying for the RFRIT grant also believes that the course towards priority support for projects within the ICC has long been noticeable. According to him, from 1 to 4 billion rubles may remain for projects for the development of IT products outside the projects of the ICC.

And a source familiar with the work of the ICC and the CDC told TAdviser that some customer companies this year decided not to participate in the selection of projects for product development within the ICC, due to the fact that they see some ambiguities around this process. However, they will have the opportunity to do this later in the second and third "waves" in the next two years.

Through RFRIT, grants are usually issued separately for the development and implementation of Russian IT solutions. In the tender documentation in both areas, relevant as of November, the deadline for the acceptance of applications is indicated on October 30, 2024. For grants for both development and implementation in the tender documentation there is the concept of "especially significant projects." At the same time, in 2022, a separate competitive selection for RFRIT grants for implementation projects was not carried out: it is intended only for projects within the ICC.

14 billion rubles allocated for grants for the development of the IT industry

The Russian Information Technology Development Fund (RFRIT) and the Skolkovo Foundation received 14 billion rubles to allocate grants for the development of the IT industry in Russia. This was announced on November 1, 2022 by the Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media Maksut Shadayev.

No, the money is all brought. In this sense, all budgetary limits are available by these development institutions for distribution, - the minister answered the question of when the funds will be brought 14 billion rubles for grants to Russian IT companies.

According to Shadayev, earlier in October 2022, the presidium of the government commission heard projects recommended by industrial competence centers.

And in general, the main decisions have been made. This week a protocol will be released, where the final list of projects will be published, - said the head of the Ministry of Ministry of Digital Development.

Kirill Sorokin, First Deputy Director of the Moscow Regional Center for Information and Communication Technologies, noted that the Ministry of Public Administration, IT and Communications of the Moscow Region is working to ease the conditions for receiving a grant.

So, among the proposals: the requirement for an IT company employee to carry out labor activity in the Moscow region for at least 1 year (previously it was at least 2 years); The ability to participate in this support program for IT companies with separate divisions in the Moscow region.

In the Moscow Region, from June 2022, IT companies and computer manufacturers can receive a grant from the regional budget when creating new workplaces. You can apply for a grant on the regional portal of public services.

The amount of grants ranges from 96 to 240 thousand rubles per year for 1 new employee, depending on his qualifications. You can spend the grant on the salary of workers and the purchase of new equipment.^[14]

The Ministry of Digital Development presented the long-awaited schedule for issuing grants for the development of Russian IT products

As TAdviser found out, on October 26, Deputy Minister of Digital Development Maxim Parshin held an online meeting for participants in the RFRIT competitive selection , applying for grants for the development of Russian IT products in 2022. The meeting presented a long-awaited calendar plan with dates for the meetings of grant committees and the approval of a list of projects that will receive grant support. It is planned to conclude agreements with grantees and transfer funds to their special accounts by December 23.

The RFRIT competition for the development of Russian IT solutions, we recall, was announced back in April. In a difficult economic situation, many development companies expected to receive timely grant support. But the process took longer than they would have liked.

This happened, among other things, because the work on applications for the competitive selection of RFRIT was synchronized with the work that is carried out within the framework of industrial competence centers (ICC) and competence centers for the development of Russian system-wide and applied software (CDC). TAdviser has written about this in detail before (see the blocks below on this page).

According to Maxim Parshin, in total this year 1189 applications for grants for product development with the requested amount of grant support of 86.5 billion rubles were submitted to the RFRIT competition. This amount is comparable to the total amount of funding for the Digital Economy national program for all seven federal projects, the deputy minister said at a webinar. 468 projects passed the initial examination and went to the first grant committee, for which support was requested in the total amount of 53.5 billion rubles.

As part of the webinar, information was voiced that the budgets for grants for projects through the RFRIT and projects through the ICC are different, but the amounts of these budgets have not yet been announced.

In total, according to the rules of the competition, two meetings of grant committees should be held, at which applications for support will be considered. The first meeting will be held in the first week of October. It will be held in the public presentation of the project.

Maxim Parshin drew attention to the fact that it is unrealistic to consider 468 diverse projects in person at once, so 22 commissions of the grant committee were formed and a schedule of face-to-face meetings was formed. Based on their results, a short list of projects will be formed and their submission for further assessment and decision-making on financing.

At the same time, the schedule of grant committees presented at the webinar on October 26 is a framework, and the specific schedule will be a little later, since while the participation of certain members of the grant committee and experts in certain thematic meetings is being agreed.

The conditions for competitive selection for RFRIT grants for product development have changed significantly compared to 2021. Key changes are shown on the webinar slide below.

At the same time, one of the conditions for receiving a grant that remained unchanged is the commercialization of the developed product in the amount of 50% of the grant amount during the year from the date of inclusion of this product in the register of domestic software. For those grantees whose software is already included in the register of domestic software, the commercialization period is a year from the moment the project is completed.

This requirement means that there should be no illusions, the deputy minister noted at the webinar: the product that results from the implementation of the project supported by the grant should be in demand on the market, and the criterion for demand is revenue - receiving income from this product on the open market.

If this condition is not met, then this is a significant violation of the terms of grant support, the result of which will be the termination of the relevant agreement and the inevitable return of the entire amount of the grant back to the federal budget.

Ministry of Industry and Trade launched an accelerator for electronics developers

In October 2022 Ministry of Industry and Trade RUSSIAN FEDERATION , he announced the launch accelerator to support small and medium-sized design centers, electronic engineers the amount of funding for 2022 and 2023 will be 1 billion. rubles This is a joint project with the foundation. " Skolkovo More. here

Mishustin instructed to complete work on projects in the development of domestic software

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin instructed to complete work on projects in the development of domestic software. The press service of the Cabinet of Ministers announced this on October 5, 2022.

According to the instructions of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, the finalized list of projects related to the creation of Russian IT solutions and applying for grant support should be considered at a meeting of the Presidium of the Government Commission on Digital Development by the end of October 2022. It is necessary to take into account expert assessments and the degree of readiness of the design documentation.

The results of the selection of projects involving the development of domestic IT solutions will be taken into account when preparing road maps for the development of high-tech areas "New Industrial Software" and "New System-Wide Software." The Ministry of Digital Development and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation is responsible for this work. Mikhail Mishustin instructed to complete it by November 1, 2022.

According to the Prime Minister, where serious refinement of the software is required - its basic functionality - the state will provide support. A significant part of the costs will be co-financed. The government is ready to compensate customers for up to 80% of the funds required to refine the product core for the requirements of the company or enterprise. Special grants will be allocated for these purposes. The Government will conclude agreements with companies that will develop and implement domestic developments.

It is planned to co-finance the introduction of a domestic software product if the company has already purchased foreign programs and incurred similar costs earlier. As a result, the organization will have to completely abandon the foreign counterparts used.^[15]

The Ministry of Digital Development and RFRIT showed a "roadmap" for selecting applications for grants for the development and implementation of Russian IT solutions

On September 2, representatives of the Ministry of Digital Development and RFRIT at an online meeting dedicated to grant and acceleration programs to support the development and implementation of Russian IT solutions^[16]told and clearly showed why, how and in what time frame the work on applications for competitive selection of RFRIT is synchronized with the work that is carried out within the framework of industrial competence centers ( ICC) and competence centers for the development of Russian system-wide and applied software ( CDC).

Recall that TAdviser on August 30 wrote in detail about the painful - that many in the IT industry have not been waiting for grant support through RFRIT for several months, and that now the product development projects submitted for the competitive selection of the fund relate to the ICC and CDC, undergoing additional examination by representatives of large customers (for more details, see the block below).

The Ministry of Digital Development previously explained that such an examination is needed due to the fact that projects should be supported, first of all, based on the needs of customers. First of all, those projects for the development of IT products that industries really need will be supported.

And at an online meeting on September 2, RFRIT General Director Alexander Pavlov named another reason why applications needed an additional examination this year. Together with a decrease in the requirements for the design of projects for the development of Russian IT solutions, which are submitted for the competitive selection of RFRIT, the quality of the applications themselves has also decreased.

Pavlov explained that if in 2021 at the start it was required to provide documents "from 200 to 1.5 thousand pages," now the foundation asks at the first stage only a presentation describing the project in 15 slides. This was done in order to simplify and speed up the submission of applications from applicants for competitive selection. As a result, the RFRIT recorded that when the start of competitive selection was announced on April 27, 72 applications were submitted in the first day, of which 20 were in the first hour.

Unfortunately, with the detailed work of the expert community with these projects, we saw that the applicant companies did not even familiarize themselves with the tender documentation, did not watch the webinars that we conducted, did not use communication channels. And about 75% of applications were returned for revision, says Pavlov.

After working closely with the community, RFRIT recorded that the quality of applications has significantly increased, and during the revision, about 200 applications are ready for consideration by the grant committee.

The general director of RFRIT told how the work of the fund is synchronized due to the fact that most of the applications were not always of acceptable quality.

We decided on the need to collect additional industry, industrial expertise about the demand for projects and their market potential, demand for these solutions, and all projects that come to us undergo additional expertise from representatives of industrial competence centers, which in fact are experts of the RFRIT, - explained Alexander Pavlov.

The CEO of the fund clearly presented the key milestones in the work on competitive selection on the slide below.

The top track on the slide is the selection of RFRIT projects for the development of IT products, which began on April 27. Applications for competitive selection are already about 1 thousand. Alexander Pavlov assures that even with such a volume, the accelerated deadlines for consideration of applications, which were discussed back in February and March (16 working days), are maintained according to projects whose authors carefully familiarize themselves with the tender documentation. The general director of RFRIT did not specify how many applications were considered in such a period.

At the moment, we are already completing an additional expert assessment by representatives of industry committees, and for the period October-November, synchronized with the track as part of the instructions of the Prime Minister, we plan to hold a cycle of grant committees, "Pavlov explained.

In December, all grant financing agreements will be concluded, and the funds will be transferred to the corresponding grant special accounts, RFRIT expects.

Deputy Minister of Digital Development Maxim Parshin added to this that by simplifying the form of the application for competitive selection at the entrance, the widest possible "funnel" of applications was received. They are different in their quality. There are worked out, and there are from those who, apparently, decided to take a chance: "What if it turns out that we will apply for 500 million, and we will quickly be given money on the grant committee, and then, maybe, something will work out."

Unfortunately, there are many such applications, the Deputy Minister of Digital Development noted, and this is the flip side of the simplicity of the form and speed of submitting an application.

Therefore, we really need to verify these applications and do it after seeing the entire volume of applications that were submitted, "says Maxim Parshin. - Using the expert infrastructure that has now been created within the framework of the ICC and CDC track, we have formed a pool of experts - several hundred - who receive the status of official experts of the foundation, sign a non-disclosure agreement. And these experts from customers, from industrial centers of competence de facto from the point of view of the customer verify the applications that were submitted for the competitive selection of development projects. Because in the absence of a clearly expressed customer, it is extremely risky to finance development projects.

All projects submitted for the competitive selection of RFRIT for the development of IT solutions will be evaluated each by at least three escorts from the ICC, said Maxim Parshin, and this assessment will be used in the overall assessment of the fund and in the procedure that the fund is now implementing.

Earlier, Maxim Parshin told TAdviser that, as he thinks, decisions on development grants will be made simultaneously with decisions on implementation grants that go through the ICC and the CDC. At the same time, there will be no separate competition for implementation, except for the track on the ICC. The deputy minister said that the competition for implementation will be opened, competitive documentation will be published in accordance with the rules, where the selection procedure will be recorded within the framework of the ICC.

At an online meeting on September 2, this moment was also touched upon. Alexander Pavlov clarified that this year the RFRIT implementation track, as it was implemented before - with the introduction of "boxed" solutions, will not be announced. This year, working only with functional customers as part of the refinement of key Russian products for the required functionality of leading enterprises. And in the future there will be a separate procedure aimed at replicating such finalized solutions according to the industry principle, explained the general director of RFRIT.

Russian IT companies cannot wait for grants from the state. But the state can also be understood. Analysis of the situation and arguments of the parties

In view of the changed geopolitical and economic situation in 2022, many Russian IT companies are waiting and cannot wait for state support in the form of grants. The government, in turn, seeks to increase the efficiency of spending the allocated money and attract co-financing of IT developments from large corporations, which in the future will be able to ensure the demand for created products. The design of an updated scheme for the distribution of state support takes considerable time, and the fear of new sanctions forces officials to limit the publicity of this activity. Both cause undisguised alarm among IT companies. Natalya Lavrentieva, deputy editor-in-chief of TAdviser, understood the intricacies of this topic and listened to the arguments of the key parties.

Grant acceleration that didn't happen

Soon after the start of the special operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the Russian government and Ministry of Digital Development promptly developed and introduced new measures to support the IT industry - to help business in the changed conditions and keep IT specialists in the country who began to fly abroad.

The help turned out to be very useful, caused a positive reaction and high demand from the market. Among those who thus spoke about support measures, for example, Natalya Kasperskaya, Chairman of the Board of ARPP "Domestic Software," ^[17].

In a short time, new measures were adopted and began to be applied in the field of tax benefits, preferential mortgages and loans, a deferral from the army. Their development took place in a close dialogue with the industry: in the spring, the Minister of Digital Development Maksut Shadayev held regular meetings with the heads of IT companies.

Some of the measures concerned grant support: for example, an increase in the maximum amount of grants for the development of IT products and the share of co-financing by the state - 80% versus 50% last year, simplification of the application for competitive selection, etc.

One of the important innovations in grant support was to reduce the time for consideration of applications from participants in the competitive selection.

At one of the meetings of representatives of the IT industry with the minister, held in early April, the head of the organization-operator of grants of the Russian Fund for the Development of Information Technologies (RFRIT) Alexander Pavlov announced plans to reduce the time for passing applications from participants - from a regular 39 working days to the period "from 16 days." At that time, this change was under approval.

Acceleration was planned to be achieved by changing the procedure for considering the application: if earlier its formal verification took place before considering the essence of the project, now RFRIT was going to first organize public protection of the project in front of the grant committee and experts, and only then take the application to work and help the participant when making an application^[18].

Now, due to a change in the procedure, we will do 16 days, - said then Alexander Pavlov.

The competitive selection of projects for the development of IT products started on April 27. By the end of August, 120 days later, none of the participants who submitted the application passed the selection. Until now, the first grant committee has not taken place on applications. In total, according to their regulations, within the framework of this selection, there must be two^[19]selection of projects for the implementation of domestic IT solutions, which was also previously carried out by RFRIT, has not yet been announced this year.

The Telegram community "STK|RFRIT for IT" (ITgrants), which has about 1 thousand participants, mainly leaders of IT companies, collectively sent their accumulated questions on this topic to RFRIT. Answers to them were received in mid-August, they were posted in the community by Ilya Kostunov, deputy general director of the fund. But the start dates of grant committees for applications were not indicated there.

In August, taking into account the schedule of the members of the grant committee, subject to the formation of a quorum, a schedule will be formed and we will begin to hold meetings, - said in the answers of the RFRIT to the community.

Ilya Nazarov, general director of Digital Markets, co-founder of the Telegram community STK|RFRIT for IT, considers the current timing of evaluating applications for competitive selection non-operational.

At the same time, it is important, it seems to me, another. Personally, as an applicant already sent to the grant committee, no one can fully explain the procedure for selecting and supporting projects. It is already clear that the tender documentation of this year does not contain all the innovations, taking into account the tasks of the Prime Minister and the position of the Ministry of Digital Development. If the contestants were told and explained the entire life cycle of the application, taking into account industry expertise and other innovations, there would be no questions, - said Ilya Nazarov in a conversation with TAdviser. - In addition, of course, it is very strange that at the end of August 2022, no one has yet announced the schedule of grant committees.

Flurry of grant applications

Both the Ministry of Digital Development and the RFRIT indicate that in 2022 the fund processes a much larger number of applications than in 2021. So, the Ministry of Digital Development, with reference to the RFRIT, brought TAdviser data that 610 applications were submitted to support product development within the framework of the open RFRIT procedure by the end of August (the number after the inventory was carried out). All applications were submitted through a single portal of public services.

This year there are so many of them, because we have simplified the procedure for entering the selection procedure as much as possible. Now the application is submitted only in the form of a structured presentation. And before, not everyone could "break through" through the stage of preparing very complex documentation, "Deputy Minister of Digital Development Maxim Parshin explained to TAdviser.

According to RFRIT, from the answers to the community, 250 applications were submitted in 2021, 62 projects were supported for a total amount of grant support of 4.5 billion rubles. At the same time, some of the projects that were not considered were postponed to 2022.

A significant increase in the number of applications and, as a result, an increased load on RFRIT can affect the timing of competitive selection. But that's not the only factor.

The parade is commanded by large customers

Since the first time (in April), plans were announced to reduce the time for consideration of grant applications in the process of evaluating applications, an innovation has appeared - the correlation of product development projects to specialized industrial competence centers (ICCs) and competence centers for the development of Russian system-wide and applied software (CDC). The government initiated their creation in July. The ICC and the CDC represent the interests of, first of all, large customers - companies and corporations from various industries.

The fact that now, within the framework of the competitive selection of RFRIT, projects for the development of IT products relate to the relevant ICC and CDC, representatives of the Ministry of Digital Development and RFRIT told.

Recall that within the framework of the ICC, it is planned to issue especially large grants - up to 6 billion rubles - for the revision or development of Russian IT products for the needs of specific customers, which are guaranteed to apply these products. This initiative was discussed in the government and the Ministry of Digital Development since March 2022. And after a meeting under the auspices of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko, held on July 9, he announced that 35 industrial competence centers for key sectors of the economy had been formed. Competence centers for the development of system-wide and application software were also created.

ICCs are led and filled by industry leaders from business. The lists of customers include state corporations, enterprises related to the defense industry, etc. The largest customers within the ICC form the needs and their vision of an affordable landscape in the development market - where there are Russian solutions and where they are not enough. The lists of Russian solution developers formed by them include many IT companies that are leaders in their segments, such as, for example, 1C, ASCON, MyOffice, etc.

On August 19, Maxim Parshin at an industry forum reported that a total of 309 customers are participating in the ICC, they formulated 353 needs, and they also selected 339 Russian developers on the market by that time, who have 695 solutions of different maturity levels^[20]. Their 160 solutions are already in a high degree of maturity, and for 41 needs there are no solutions on the market at all.

TAdviser previously wrote in detail about these competence centers, their organizational structure, participating companies and the first results of their work with reference to the information presented at the aforementioned meeting with Dmitry Chernyshenko (see separate article).

In this case, it is planned to provide support for the development of domestic solutions through customers.

In accordance with the instructions of Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, given within the framework of the CIPR, a lot of work is underway to support the development and implementation within the framework of the ICC and the CDC. At least 300 experts from customers, developers, specialized associations, educational and expert organizations participate in it. The pool of experts continues to expand. And the role of RFRIT is to ensure these processes, "Maxim Parshin explained to TAdviser. - We are now coming from the needs of customers. First of all, those projects for the development of IT products and software that industries really need will be supported.

The customer, conditionally, must say: "Yes, I believe in this team, in this solution, and am ready to co-finance the revision and implementation of this solution from my own means." The result will be a new level product, which will then be replicated, the deputy minister added.

This is the ideology in this case, and such projects are now a priority for us.

Enriched expertise

Thus, all applications for support for product development within the framework of the open procedure of RFRIT should now be evaluated by experts from industries, i.e. from industrial customers. Maxim Parshin explained that this is happening: customer companies delegate experts from themselves, who are then assigned the status of an official expert of the fund - a member of the expert commission by the decision of the RFRIT board. As a rule, these are persons responsible for IT, for digitalization, product introduction in large customer companies. NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement), No Conflict of Interest Agreement, etc.

As a result of the assessment, including by experts from industries, a rating of projects will be built, and then decisions will be made by the grant committee.

Customer evaluation is necessary because it is very risky to finance even a very good idea that does not have a specific customer. RFRIT is not a venture capital fund, and working with budget money is a big responsibility, says the Deputy Minister of Digital Development.

There are, of course, areas where there is no clearly defined customer - various B2C projects, but even here they will collect the widest possible range of experts who assess the potential of the product in the mass market, he adds.

Having collected and analyzed a large number of applications, we thus actually studied the entire development market so as not to lose not only large, but also less visible players. At the same time, there is no delay in the consideration of applications. It's just that this work should come together with the work that is being carried out within the framework of the ICC and the CDC, "explains Maxim Parshin. - I would not say that checking applications by experts from customer companies is a kind of additional link: thus, the RFRIT assessment procedure was improved, strengthened by industry expertise. The RFRIT tender documentation allows you to do this, if necessary, we will make appropriate amendments.

Both RFRIT and the Ministry of Ministry of Digital Development, even before the relevant decisions of the Prime Minister were made, repeatedly spoke about the need to expand the pool of experts of the fund, Maxim Parshin also noted.

Grant committees. When?

I think that decisions on development grants will be made simultaneously with decisions on implementation grants that go through the ICC and the CDC. It will all be during October. According to the results of a mass assessment of industry experts, who are also experts of the RFRIT, the first grant committee should pass in September. And in October, according to my forecast, there should be a final decision on all projects, - Maxim Parshin told TAdviser.

Important information: there will be no separate competition for implementation, except for the track on the ICC. According to the deputy minister, the competition for implementation will be opened, competitive documentation will be published in accordance with the rules, where the selection procedure will be recorded within the framework of the ICC.

ICC: grant or preferential loan?

Initially, the public field was talking only about grant support within the ICC, but later there were conversations, including about preferential loans, as a measure of support for developments.

As for the forms of support, here we start from the essence of the projects. There are projects that it is advisable to support with grants - first of all, those where the functionality of solutions is quite significantly developed during the implementation process. There should already be a groundwork, the development is not from scratch. In this case, we give the customer a grant on co-financing terms, and then he solves his problem, and at the same time a solution is developing that is further monetized on the market without any support, "Maxim Parshin explained to TAdviser.

And there are projects where the introduction of a mature solution, plus or minus circulation, is required. Here, rather, a preferential loan is more suitable when the state takes over part of the interest rate, and the loan is issued to the customer, say, at 4-5%, the deputy minister adds. At the same time, according to him, there are a number of projects that do not require budget financing at all, but are implemented at the expense of companies' own funds. Now more than 300 projects have been prepared within the framework of the ICC (more than 200) and the CDC (more than 100). About a third of them do not require state support and are fully financed from their own funds.

Not only RFRIT works in such a paradigm, but also the Skolkovo Foundation, through which support is also carried out. In the case of Skolkovo, we are now working on the issue of increasing the limit of grant financing from 300 million rubles to 1 billion rubles for especially significant projects that go through the ICC. And through the RFRIT, I remind you, you can receive grants of up to 6 billion rubles.

There are also projects that need regulatory support - for example, the issue of creating guaranteed demand, adds Parshin.

Transparency issues

In the IT community, TAdviser has repeatedly heard comments that the activities of the ICC and the CDC lack transparency for the public. Thus, work within the framework of the ICC and the CDC has been actively underway for several months, but in the public domain and now there are no documents with which it is regulated.

The activities of the ICC and the CDC are regulated by the procedures for their activities, which were approved by the presidium of the government commission on digital development, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Nikolaevich Chernyshenko. There are also fixed compositions of all ICK and CCR. I must say that now we have prepared proposals for expanding the composition of competence centers, which we will soon send to the government, - said Maxim Parshin in a conversation with TAdviser.

The question of whether the regulatory framework related to the ICC and the CDC will be published in the public domain remains open.

On August 19, at an industry forum, Parshin also said that based on the results of customer work within the ICC, appropriate maps were compiled with the needs and available IT solutions for each industry - a total of 128 slides. The deputy minister demonstrated the example of one of them to the participants at that event. But these cards are also not published in the public domain. "For obvious reasons," he noted then: otherwise you can fall under the sanctions of the entire list.

The world changed after February 24. We have developed a landscape of customer needs within the framework of the ICC and CDC, clearly presented in the form of slides, and earlier, of course, we would have made it completely public. But now, unfortunately, there are risks in the public disclosure of such information for both developers and customers. Also, at meetings within the framework of the ICC, for example, the business processes of companies are discussed, and not all of them want this to become public, "Maxim Parshin explained to TAdviser.

All work is open, just some things are not published, the deputy minister added. If someone wants to connect to this work, then no selection or "dropout" occurs. This is a dynamic process, new participants can connect to it.

If someone is ready to participate in this, then you need to work, devote a certain time and effort to this, "says the deputy minister.

"The only chance for the Russian Federation to retain highly qualified specialists"

In anticipation of grant support for questions, IT companies have accumulated so much that some of them write letters not only collectively to the RFRIT, but also directly to the Ministry of Ministry of Digital Development with requests to clarify the situation and the desire to pay attention to their problems. TAdviser got acquainted with one of these letters sent to the Ministry of Digital Development by the general director of the iDi IT company Alexander Muravyov. In it, he refers to an interview with Maxim Parshin, published on August 1 on^[21], where it was announced that in November decisions should be made and grant support agreements signed with customers and developers.

AiDi, in particular, in January 2022 began developing its Veles project (creating a platform for concluding real estate lease agreements between individuals and/or legal entities) aimed at legalizing the real estate lease market in the Russian Federation. Alexander Muravyov in his letter to the head of the Ministry of Ministry of Digital Development Maksut Shadayev notes that the agreement with the participant in the competitive selection of the RFRIT is only an intermediate stage until the grant funds are received to the participant's settlement (grant) account, which he can manage within the framework of the estimate and the project schedule. I.e. with the announced (Maxim Parshin in an interview) deadline for concluding agreements, the money to the grant account of the winner of the competitive selection will arrive no earlier than 2023.

The CEO of iDi in the letter asks the question: how to develop projects with the declared Ministry of Digital Development of state co-financing up to 80%, if at least during the year it is required to do this at the expense of 100% of its own funding?

One of the problems associated with the current timing of the RFRIT competitive selection is that many IT companies participating in it were unable to send key employees on vacation. In a letter to the minister, Muravyov explains that they had been expecting a grant committee all summer, which the RFRIT announced in mid-May how "we will spend in the near future." And there is still no certainty about the timing of grant committees.

We consider it necessary to remind that the vacation season in 2022 turned out to be very cut due to the sanctions imposed on the Russian Federation by unfriendly countries. Starting from the closure of most of the foreign vacation locations, ending with a sharp jump in prices for the remaining places of rest and tickets. And in the case of the Krasnodar Territory and Crimea, tickets were completely redeemed for 2 months ahead, "Muravyov notes.

In a conversation with TAdviser, the CEO of iDi noted that the changed geopolitical situation and the economic situation greatly affected small and medium-sized Russian IT companies and ordinary developers. Those of them who had offers to move from other countries moved from the Russian Federation in the first 2-4 weeks after the start of the SVO and did not return, despite the statements of the Ministry of Digital Ministry of Digital Development, he says. They moved in whole teams.

The main reason for the move is earnings. No mortgage or deferral from the army will help earn the money that highly qualified specialists received for remote development abroad. With this money, they could comfortably live in the Russian Federation and create their own projects. There is no SWIFT, PayPal, the Ministry of Finance prohibits crypt - it is impossible to get money for your work, says Alexander Muravyov. - Only patriotic-optimistic teams, like us, and inexperienced specialists remained. You can code from anywhere in the world.

Timely receipt of support from the state in the form of grants now is the only chance for the Russian Federation to retain highly qualified specialists, believes Alexander Muravyov. Many developers and teams have projects that they delay due to lack of time and resources. State support will provide resources and free up time to bring the project to completion. And this, in turn, will "give a boost" for the growth of domestic solutions that will not only import the software that left the Russian Federation, but also surpass it, create new solutions that are not yet in the world.

Vladimir Zakharov, general director of the IT company "Datana," who also wrote to the Ministry of Digital Development, Maxim Parshin, a letter with questions about grants from RFRIT and the ICC, also points to the problems faced by small and medium-sized IT companies against the background of geopolitics, and the importance of timely grant support.

In general, small and medium-sized businesses "tighten their belts," reduce resources, abandon R&D, and look for where to sell. The situation also worsened to attract investments - Russian venture and previously valued companies with a small coefficient, now the market has shrunk to the borders of the Russian Federation. The West is inaccessible, Asia is still in doubt. Large near-state corporations can buy SME expertise at a discount. There are, of course, exceptions to statistics - Siemens that have fallen into the shadows, for example, small manufacturers of Russian controllers and APCS can count on growth, because the article on basic automation will remain in the budget of industrial enterprises in times of crisis, says Vladimir Zakharov.

The general director of "Datana" notes that plans for digitalization in the affected industries are subject to complete revision: with a significant reduction in budgets for the figure, initiatives with a payback period of up to a year remain in focus. This means that the market for new production technologies has critically decreased, and for many small and medium-sized companies, state support measures are a matter of survival. First of all, these are grants to developers, since the opportunities for their own investment in the product have decreased, and grants to customers for the implementation of finished products, since customers now have difficulties.

Unfortunately, despite all the promises and announcements, this support has not yet reached the market. Probably, in a year or two, the economy will begin to stabilize - industrial enterprises will find new suppliers of materials and customers of products. By that time, without state support for commercial IT vendors on the basis of transparent and understandable rules, the market will unite and monopolize state corporations and large commercial companies "close" to them. I think we can not talk about the consequences, - says Vladimir Zakharov.

Ilya Nazarov believes that grant support is important primarily from the point of view of economic development.

It is necessary to quickly bring high-quality import-substituting products to the market, and in this sense, only significant financial investments can often help. But the developer himself should be engaged in the development of the product and the formation of technological leadership in the future, - says the general director of Digital Markets.

Ugorchans can receive a grant from the governor for projects in the IT sphere

From September 1, 2022, a competition will start for the provision of grants from the Governor of Ugra for the implementation of projects in the field of culture, art and creative industries in 2022 in the direction of projects in the field of information and communication technologies. Both individuals and organizations can take part in the competition, the Department of Information Technologies and Digital Development of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug - Ugra reported on August 29, 2022.

Projects in the field of information and communication technologies in two categories of applicants can be submitted to the competition: "Individuals" and "Legal entities and individual entrepreneurs" in sub-directorates:

• domestic programs for COMPUTER (software products, digital services or platform solutions);
• artificial intelligence;
• robotics and sensorics;
• internet of things;
• virtual and augmented reality technologies;
• gamification ( development of computer games).

Individuals can receive up to 500 thousand rubles, which will include expenses for banking, issuance and maintenance of an electronic digital signature, personal income tax.

IT companies will be able to receive up to 1.5 million rubles, including expenses for banking services, an electronic document management system, and the release and maintenance of an electronic digital signature.

Applications must be submitted during the deadline for accepting applications for participation in the competition from September 1 to October 1, 2022. The tender documentation is posted on the website.

The operator of grants from the Governor of Ugra is the Center for Civil and Social Initiatives of Ugra Foundation.

RFRIT will support grantees who did not have time to purchase iron

As TAdviser was told in RFRIT, the next grant committee will consider the first 5 applications for additional funding and adjustment of other conditions from companies that received grants in 2021-2022. In total, 20 such appeals were submitted to the RFRIT by mid-July. According to the general director of RFRIT Alexander Pavlov, after February, IT companies began to contact the fund, which received grants, which, due to changes in market conditions, are forced to revise projects. Read more here.

The government allowed developers of VR and AR technologies to receive grants

In early May 2022, the Ministry of Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation announced state support for Russian developers of virtual (VR) and augmented reality ( AR) technologies. Such companies will be able to apply for grants allocated under the IT industry support program. At the same time , the solutions themselves must correspond to one of the priorities that include the most popular software classes, the department explained to Izvestia.

At the same time, the Ministry of Digital Development did not name the financial volume of support for VR and AR developers, as well as other details of the projects.

According to Oleg Rudzeit, an expert at the competence center of the National Technological Initiative "Neurotechnologies, Virtual and Augmented Reality Technologies" based on FEFU, due to difficulties with the import of equipment, the Russian market for VR and AR technologies may sink by 30-40%.

The article says that by May 2022 in Russia, virtual and augmented reality helmets are being developed by Total Vision, the VR- center of Moscow State University and Deus. Most of the components in these helmets are not Russian, but there are technologies for the production and production of the necessary components in Russia.

VR Concept CEO Denis Zakharkin, in a conversation with the newspaper, noted that there are difficulties with buying software - you cannot get access without a VPN, and some companies even block all Russian accounts. Any attempts to bypass will legally violate the rules for the operation of this software, he said.

Depending on the measures taken by the state, it will be clear how the further fate of the VR and AR industry in Russia will develop. If you organize the right support, the industry will be able to develop even at a stronger pace than previously predicted, - added Denis Zakharkin.[22]

Russian IT companies will now be able to cover not 50%, but 80% of the project cost with grants

In April 2022, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a decree expanding grant support for Russian IT companies. The latter, in particular, will be able to count on grants that cover 80% of the cost of projects instead of the previous 50%.

According to the press service of the Cabinet of Ministers, resolutions have amended the rules for granting subsidies to Russian funds that issue grants to IT companies for developments in the field of information technology. It is noted that the decision made is part of the priority action plan to ensure the development of the economy in the context of external sanctions pressure. The measures introduced will speed up import substitution, reduce the negative consequences of sanctions and prevent the outflow of specialists abroad, the government said.

The deputy head, Ministry of Digital Development RUSSIAN FEDERATION Maxim Parshin quoted by the press service of the ministry, said that the proposal to increase funding for grant programs was prepared by the ministry in pursuance of the presidential decree " Russia On new measures to support the IT industry."

The changes will also affect the competitive selection procedure: the first stage will be public protection of projects, and only then the companies that have passed the selection will move to the formal part of the preparation of the application. You can fill out a preliminary application for grant support right now on the public services portal, the deputy minister said in April 2022.

He invited Russian IT companies to actively apply for grants through a new form and assured that each of them will be considered by the Russian Fund for the Development of Information Technologies (RFRIT).

The fund routes depending on the essence of the project, on the required amount of funding. Work will be done with each. Please actively fill out the form. Take the initiative. All - dozens, thousands of applications - will be worked out, he said.

Earlier governments , 21.5 billion was allocated from the reserve fund to support the IT industry in 2022. rubles Of these, 14 billion rubles - for grants.^[23]

The amount of grants from Skolkovo for the pilot implementation of Russian IT solutions increased to 300 million rubles

According to the changes to the government decree, the maximum amount of the grant for companies implementing advanced Russian solutions created on the basis of digital technologies increased from 120 to 300 million rubles. The total amount of funding for the program for 2022 increased from 1.2 billion to 2.4 billion rubles^[24]. And the corresponding competition for such grants was launched in May^[25].

Mishustin allocated 14 billion rubles for grants for the IT industry

In early April 2022, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed an order approving the allocation of 14 billion rubles to support companies representing the IT industry.

The funds in the form of grants will be distributed by the Fund for Assistance to the Development of Small Forms of Enterprises in the Scientific and Technical Sphere (Bortnik Fund), the Fund for the Development of the Center for the Development and Commercialization of New Technologies (Skolkovo Fund) and the Russian Fund for the Development of Information Technologies (RFRIT).

As follows from the decree, RFRIT will receive 10.8 billion rubles to support projects for the development and implementation of Russian solutions in the field of information technology within the framework of the federal project "Digital Technologies" of the national program "Digital Economy." In total, at least 20 projects should be supported in 2022.

The Skolkovo Foundation will receive 1.2 billion rubles "to ensure the first large-scale implementation of Russian solutions in the field of information technology," support should receive at least four projects. An additional subsidy allocated to the Bortnik Fund in 2022 to support projects of small enterprises in the field of digital solutions will amount to 2 billion rubles, they are supposed to be used to support 107 projects by the end of 2022.

The Ministry of Digital Development will transfer an additional 3 billion rubles in the form of subsidies to Russian credit organizations to reimburse their lost income on loans issued to backbone accredited organizations in the field of information technology, as well as organizations that are part of the group of persons of the backbone organization in the field of information technology: the volume of loans issued to borrowers to replenish working capital of backbone organizations in the field of information technology at a preferential interest rate in 2022 should amount to 54.5 billion rubles.^[26]

The Ministry of Digital Development began to accept applications for state grants through the portal of public services

To simplify the procedure for obtaining state grants, the Ministry of Digital Development launched a form on the public services portal to collect applications from companies. Deputy Minister Maxim Parshin spoke about this on March 25, 2022 as part of a meeting at the RFRIT with the media and representatives of the IT community.

According to him, due to the complexity of formal procedures, many companies could not receive a grant. Now a preliminary application can be submitted through the portal of public services by filling out a form on behalf of the company and attaching a presentation.

The application form allows you to describe the idea of ​ ​ the project, the amount of funding required. Developers applying for a grant need to indicate which foreign software can be replaced with this project, etc., - said Maxim Parshin.

A banner with a link to the application form is posted on the second screen of the main page of the public services portal. Incoming applications will be considered by the RFRIT Commission and the Ministry of Digital Development.

In addition, a budget will be allocated from RFRIT funds for marketing support of projects approved by the development institutions.

As Deputy Head of the Ministry of Digital Development notes, government decrees will be approved in the near future, which will fix the rules for the provision of subsidies. They were submitted to the government on March 24, 2022. The 2022 budget provides 7.5 billion rubles for grant support for IT companies through RFRIT, IIDF, Skolkovo Foundation. According to Maxim Parshin, in the near future this volume will be increased several times.

2021

The Ministry of Digital Development has allocated grants for IT companies for 6 billion rubles

December 28, 2021 Ministry of Digital Development of Russia summed up the results of grant competitions held in 2021: the the Russian IT company will receive more than 6 billion for the development and implementation of solutions. rubles The operators of the support measures were, and Russian Information Technology Development Fund. Skolkovo Foundation Innovation Promotion Fund

The Russian Information Technology Development Fund has selected 62 projects, which is more than the previous two years. The total amount of grant support amounted to 4.5 billion rubles. In total, 226 applications were received for the competition - twice as much as in 2020, in the amount of more than 36 billion rubles.

Among the winners are development projects: a system of assistance in decision-making for doctors -radiologists when planning endoprosthetics operations (LLC RTK Radiology""), neural network a system of semantic analysis and synthesis content social networks in and (messengers LLC ""), Combining Cognitive Associative Systems a mobile version of the program for merchandising management in (LLC retail "").BasaltSAT

The Skolkovo Foundation selected 12 projects worth 680 million rubles in grant support. Among the winners are projects for pilot implementation: a system for monitoring the state of infrastructure and water supply facilities in the city (GPKO Kalugaoblvodokanal), a single platform for creating digital counterparts for the design and production of transport (STM Research Center LLC).

The Innovation Assistance Fund supported projects worth 1.2 billion rubles. Also, the fund announced competitive selections under the programs "Development-CT" and "Start-CT-1," the winners of which will be named in 2022.

The grant support indicators planned for 2021 within the framework of the federal project "Digital Technologies" of the national program Digital economy of Russia have been fully fulfilled. At the same time, the funnel of incoming projects and the geography of the regions involved have been significantly expanded. The conditions for receiving grant support have also been optimized - RFRIT has withdrawn a service for applying for, Public Services Portal reduced the consideration period and lifted the moratorium on re-filing, - said Deputy Head of the Ministry of Digital Development. Russia Maxim Parshin

Minek has developed rules for issuing grants for "growing" IT startups

In early December 2021, it became known about the rules developed by the Ministry of Economic Development for issuing grants for the so-called "growing" startups in Russia. One project can count on state support in the amount of 250 million rubles.

The priorities chosen by the government are as follows:

• artificial intelligence;
• 5G networks;
• promising space systems;
• quantum computing and communications;
• technologies of new materials and substances;
• power transmission technologies and distributed smart power systems;
• technologies for creating new and portable energy sources;
• development of genetic technologies;
• new generations of microelectronics and the creation of an electronic component base;
• quantum sensors;
• internet of things;
• distributed registry technologies.

Grants were promised to companies with annual revenues in the amount of 500 million to 10 billion rubles. In addition, applicants must have documented successful experience in implementing similar projects. Another condition is that the financing of the project from extrabudgetary sources should be at least 100% of the grant amount.

In early December 2021, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin at a meeting of the government commission on the development of small and medium-sized businesses noted the importance of the strategic initiative "Take off from a startup to an IPO," which is being implemented in Russia. This project provides support for startups and the "growth" of technology entrepreneurs, he said.

Despite the value of this program, in our opinion, it is extremely important to create a mechanism for managing this program in the form of, perhaps, a special council of leaders interested in its implementation, authorities, and development institutions. Such a practice (we studied international experience) is already being applied, - said the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation.[27]

Launch of grant tenders for IT projects in the amount of 3.8 billion rubles

On July 15, 2021, the Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation announced the launch of grant competitions for IT projects conducted by the Russian Fund for the Development of Information Technologies (RFRIT). By the end of the year, such companies will be provided with financial support in the amount of 3.8 billion rubles. Read more here.

The Russian government has allocated 1.4 billion rubles for grants for AI startups

The Russian government has allocated 1.4 billion rubles to support startups engaged in artificial intelligence technologies. The press service of the Cabinet of Ministers announced this on March 29, 2021.

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin approved the rules for providing support to AI developers in the form of grants for the development of projects. Both small firms and individuals will be able to count on subsidies. Projects will be selected according to several criteria, including the novelty and effectiveness of the proposed solutions, the prospects for the implementation and commercial implementation of the product.

The Fund for Assistance to the Development of Small Forms of Enterprises in the Scientific and Technical Sphere will be engaged in the competitive selection of applicants and the provision of funding. He will also determine the terms and conditions of the competition, requirements for participants, a list of necessary documents. This information will be published on the Internet.

Mishustin explained that such support is provided for developers of electronic services, promising and commercially profitable IT solutions using artificial intelligence technologies. Also, according to him, grants can be provided to create open libraries - special free resources where programs based on artificial intelligence will be placed so that each IT engineer can use them to create their own product.

At a meeting with Deputy Prime Ministers on March 29, 2021, Mikhail Mishustin recalled that President Vladimir Putin drew special attention to the importance of the development of artificial intelligence during a meeting of the supervisory board of the ANO "Russia is a country of opportunities" on March 26.

We will continue to create favorable conditions for expanding the scope of artificial intelligence technologies. For this, the budget for the next three years provides for more than 5 billion rubles, - said the Prime Minister.[28]

2020:278 IT companies received grants totaling 4.5 billion rubles

At the end of 2020, 278 IT companies became the winners of Ministry of Digital Development grant programs, which received 4.5 billion rubles in total. This was told by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko at a meeting of the presidium of the government commission on digital development, which took place on February 25, 2021.

Within the framework of the project, the Ministry of Digital Development managed to achieve tangible results in the development and provision of support measures important both for the development of the IT industry and for the digital transformation of the business. Grants and soft loans were in demand, he said, adding that the portfolio of loan agreements reached 35 billion rubles.

The Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation held competitions for receiving grant support for projects for the development and implementation of Russian digital solutions for a total of 7.1 billion rubles.

Grant support is provided by the ministry within the framework of the federal project "Digital Technologies." The grant support operators were the Skolkovo Foundation, the Russian Fund for the Development of Information Technologies (RFRIT) and the Innovation Assistance Fund (FSI ).

The FSI program was focused on the implementation of IT startups. Grants could be received by startup projects in artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, blockchain, new production technologies and other areas.

The Ministry of Digital Development offered up to 20 million rubles for startups and up to 300 million rubles for large initiatives aimed at digitalizing business. At the same time, both IT product developers and companies implementing digital solutions could receive a grant.

Projects for participation in competitions had to correspond to the priority areas of support approved by the presidium of the government commission on digital development, the use of information technologies and the conditions for doing business.^[29]

See also

Benefits and support measures for IT companies in Russia

Industrial Competence Centers (ICC)

Notes