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The government is ready to provide all necessary means to develop the nanotechnology industry on the condition that work is organised effectively and that the money is well spent, Vladimir Putin emphasised.

Following the meeting of the Presidential Council on Science, Technology and Education held on 17 October 2006, the President instructed the government cabinet to take the necessary measures to establish major national research centres throughout Russia that focus on priority areas in modern technology.

At the meeting in the Kurchatov Institute first deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov and Science and Education Minister Andrei Fursenko told the head of state about implementing his instructions with regard to establishing a programme for the development of the nanotechnology industry. A national nanotechnology centre will be established at the Kurchatov Institute. A federal target programme to develop infrastructure in the nanotechnology industry until 2010 has been prepared and put to the cabinet for approval.

Kurchatov Institute Director Mikhail Kovalchuk spoke in detail about the possibilities offered by nanotechnology and their potential influence on the Russian economy and Russian society.

First deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov will head a nanotechnology council and supervise the allocation of public funds designed to develop the nanotechnology industry.

Prior to the meeting President Putin visited the Kurchatov centre for synchrotron radiation and nanotechnology and the exhibition of innovative technologies developed by Russian scientists.

The Kurchatov centre of synchrotron radiation and nanotechnology was established because of the active development of synchrotron radiation research into nanostructured materials and systems, as well as increased use of nanotechnology in medicine. These developments were based on the Kurchatov source of synchrotron radiation. The Kurchatov source of synchrotron radiation is the first and, to date, the only specialised installation of its kind in Russia and represents, therefore, a strategically important step for developing both the Kurchatov Institute and national science more generally.

The Russian Research Centre Kurchatov Institute concentrates a unique experimental testing centre and complex for major physics operations. A coordinating programme to develop nanotechnology has officially given the Kurchatov Institute the status of parent organisation.

The President highly praised the Kurchatov Institute’s potential.

After the meeting Vladimir Putin visited the Igor Kurchatov house museum, a house within the research centre where the scientist lived between 1946 and 1960.