Priorities of bioeconomy development discussed in Moscow

The scientific conference "Bioeconomics for Humans", the first event of the Forum of Future Technologies — 2026 program, has started its work at the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow. The conference opened with a meeting of the Scientific and Technical Council of the Scientific and Technical Center for Bioeconomics and Biotechnology. Among the participants are Valery Falkov, Head of the Ministry of Education and Science, and Anton Alikhanov, Minister of Industry and Trade. It is these ministries that oversee the national project "Technological Support for Bioeconomics", for the implementation of which the Scientific and Technological Center (STC) was created - a consortium of leading Russian research organizations under the scientific leadership of the Kurchatov Institute.

"Three years ago, there was no such event agenda dedicated to biotechnology,— said Valery Falkov. — And today in our country, biotechnologies and bioeconomics are fixed among the priorities of scientific and technological development at the strategic level. The relevant national technology leadership project creates the conditions for a long-term policy aimed at building its own technological base and reducing critical dependence on external sources."

The central report of the meeting was a speech by Mikhail Kovalchuk, President of the Kurchatov Institute Research Center. He traced the history of the development of Russian biological science and industry from the middle of the 20th century to the present day. "In the field of biotechnology, we have always been not only competitive, but also world leaders in many areas. And where we have to catch up today, we will be able to do it very quickly thanks to our scientific potential," he stressed.

Mikhail Kovalchuk emphasized that the development of bioeconomics is an important step towards solving the global task of creating a nature—like technosphere. And the Kurchatov Institute is consistently working in this direction: "We have retained all the competencies in our traditional field of nuclear physics and nuclear energy. But in addition, over the past 10-15 years, we have formed a new Kurchatov Institute of the 21st century, aimed specifically at biotechnological tasks and nature-like technologies that require an interdisciplinary approach."

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— Nature-like technologies that reproduce the principles of organization of living systems, use closed energy cycles, while ensuring high efficiency and minimizing waste. They form the foundations for a new economy focused on ecological balance," Valery Falkov continued the topic.

He recalled that the President of Russia issued a decree on the development of nature-like technologies, in which the government was instructed to determine the criteria for this group of developments, and the Kurchatov Institute was entrusted with the duties of the head scientific organization in this area.

The main events of the Future Technologies Forum will be held in Moscow from February 25 to 26 and will be dedicated to high-tech technologies. The main theme of the entire large—scale event is "Bioeconomics for Humans." It will host over 30 thematic sessions and panel discussions with the participation of more than 100 speakers. The central event of the business program will be the plenary session. The event is supported by the Government of the Russian Federation. The organizer is the Roscongress Foundation.