The United Shipbuilding Corporation to support the construction of an innovative science and technology centre ‘The Neva Delta’ at St Petersburg University

Over the next five years, new University campuses in the Pushkinsky District will have facilities with laboratories and pilot plant production. The Neva Delta will occupy 100 hectares, with the potential for increasing the area threefold.

The United Shipbuilding Corporation is an open joint stock company established on 21 March 2007 in accordance with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Decree No 394. 100% of its shares are publicly owned. The Corporation is the largest shipbuilding company in Russia. It includes about 40 domestic shipyards, design offices and ship repair yards. The enterprises of the corporation operate in all major port and transportation hubs of the country — from Kaliningrad to Khabarovsk, from Murmansk to Astrakhan and employ nearly 95,000 workers. The United Shipbuilding Corporation is the leader in shipbuilding across an area stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean. At present, the corporation consolidates the biggest part of the domestic shipbuilding complex.

The creation of the science and technology centre will facilitate the scientific and technological cooperation of various specialists, both within and beyond the Neva Delta. The centre is expected to enhance cooperation with leading scientific and educational organisations, associated institutes, industrial partners and the foreign scientific community.

We are keenly interested in innovative developments that germinate the seeds of new ideas for shipbuilding and breakthroughs that open up new horizons.

Alexei Rakhmanov, Chief Executive officer of the United Shipbuilding Corpoartion

’We are looking forward to developments and ideas from our cooperation with St Petersburg University,’ said Alexei Rakhmanov, CEO of the United Shipbuilding Corporation.

The centre will house scientific and production facilities for various sectors related to ecology, energy, agro-technology, digital modelling, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, genetics, advanced oil and gas technology, instrumentation engineering, and new materials (including for use in the Arctic).

St Petersburg University is one of the largest research and educational centres in Europe and the world. 25,000 students study at the University, and 5,000 academics, including Nobel and Fields laureates, work here. The University scientists are annually listed among the Web of Science (WoS) Highly Cited Researchers. The University today is an advanced research centre. It includes more than 15 large laboratories, the Institute of Translational Biomedicine, the Pirogov Clinic of High Medical Technologies, and 24 resource centres that are part of the leading Research Park in Russia. The St Petersburg University Research Park has unique technological capabilities in Russia and in a number of areas globally.

’The creation of the innovative science and technology centre «Neva Delta» is a challenging and ambitious goal, the achievement of which will open up new horizons for domestic science and become a stimulus for the development of various sectors of the economy. It is a reassuring thought that Russia’s largest shipbuilding company will be joining forces in this endeavour. It has the capacity to appreciate and apply the developments of our scientists. The Neva Delta is to provide a vivid example of successful cooperation between science and business, and will contribute to the prosperity of the country and the development of its potential,’ said Nikolay Kropachev, Rector of St Petersburg University.