At the REN-2025 session, mechanisms were proposed to accelerate technological transfer in the energy sector

As part of the business program of the Russian Energy Week, an expert session "Science in the Fuel and Energy Sector: from Idea to Series" was held, dedicated to a topic critical to technological sovereignty – the integration of scientific developments into the real production cycle. REN-2025 is held with the support of the Government of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Energy of Russia and the Government of Moscow. The organizer is the Roscongress Foundation.

Leading industry experts, representatives of science, engineering, and government discussed barriers to innovation and opportunities to shorten the path from a laboratory installation to a mass-produced product. The key topic of the discussion was overcoming the "technological threshold" – the stage at which a promising scientific idea should be brought to a ready-made industrial solution.

Vladimir Klimenko, Chief Researcher at the MEI National Research University, cited the experience of China, which annually introduces huge amounts of renewable energy sources. The example highlighted the urgent need to accelerate technological transfer and adjust national strategies to maintain competitiveness.

The participants emphasized that modern challenges require fundamentally new approaches. "We need a new technological stack to develop hard–to-recover reserves," said Konstantin Prochukhan, Deputy General Director for Science at Cyrillic Group, noting that by 2050, more than 30% of Russia's oil production will have to be provided by such resources.

During the session, engineering centers were identified as a key link capable of "translating" the language of fundamental science into the language of specific technological solutions. Alexander Dyakonov, rector of Almetyevsk State Technological University Higher School of Petroleum, also supported this idea, emphasizing the importance of personnel training: "Without the support of federal projects such as advanced engineering schools, we will not be able to train specialists ready for innovation."

Andrey Anikeev, Head of the TCB Management Office at Nauka i Innovatsii, spoke about the Breakthrough project, a new technology platform for the nuclear industry with a closed nuclear fuel cycle based on fast neutron reactors. The MBIR reactor with a unique neutron spectrum will allow testing new materials and fuels. According to experts, the introduction of this technology will allow Russia to create a full-fledged closed fuel cycle system by 2040, making nuclear energy truly "green".

An important signal was the change in the financing paradigm. Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Klimenko noted that "today, funding is becoming more focused on specific issues." He said that the Russian Science Foundation has been actively supporting applied research since 2023, and about 130 projects are already being implemented in this area, which indicates the industry's demand for specific technological solutions.

Experts noted the increasing role of technology clusters and industry research and educational centers (RECs). Ekaterina Sokolova, Head of the Development and Innovation Sector at the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, cited the work on the development of geothermal and hydrogen energy in Kamchatka and Sakhalin as an example, noting that "development in the coming decades will depend on the coordinated work of the teams of our institutes." This clearly shows how the creation of regional research and production consortia accelerates implementation by combining the fundamental knowledge of academic institutions with applied tasks and infrastructure of the real sector.

The participants of the session "Science in the Fuel and Energy Sector: from idea to series" formulated a number of priority actions to accelerate technological transfer in the energy sector. These include, in particular, the implementation of the KPIs of the national project "Technological Leadership" as the basis for Russia's global competitiveness in world markets, strengthening engineering and personnel training through advanced engineering schools, developing cluster education policy and supporting regional scientific and technological consortia, as well as focusing on applied financing with the active participation of corporations in the formation of an order for science.

The event showed that the Russian fuel and energy sector has not only an understanding of the problems, but also a clear vision of ways to solve them. The next step is to move from discussions to the practical implementation of the planned trajectory.