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transferred to a third party for implementation (in the mode of selling a business) or is carried out by the inventors themselves with the support of the fund and the institute. To increase the scale of these efforts, plans for financing the Project for Creation of a Regional Innovation Center are included in the draft Program for the Development of the City of Zarechny as a Science City.

To make activities in this area more successful, the oblast needs to pass a law on innovation activity and establish a program for the development of innovation activity, including the creation of venture capital centers to provide an infrastructure for promoting innovations. Plans for such a concept of innovation activity have already been worked out, with the development fund being involved in this effort.

At the federal level, a package of legislation is needed regarding innovations and the support they require. Drafts of such laws are at the Ministry of Industry, Science, and Technology and the State Duma. Efforts are needed to move them forward. In addition, initiating actions are necessary similar to those taken by the science ministry regarding innovative technology centers. However, it would be expedient to link such centers not with scientific institutions but rather with more flexible, active structures with more resources at their disposal. Such structures could be found in the boards of directors of Science City programs established at the time the programs are approved and their status is confirmed.

The functions of establishing an innovation center or performing the functions of such a center should be recorded as mandatory state orders for each Science City. The functions of innovation centers could also be successfully carried out by Minatom cities regardless of whether they have been accorded the status of Science Cities or not.