Innovators Need Material Aid
“The system of implementing new inventions is gaining momentum and we are constantly supporting inventors,” said Oleksiy Nahovytsyn, head of the Department for Research and Technological Progress at the Ministry of Industrial Policy, during a meeting of entrepreneurs and inventors. Perhaps he really believed what he was saying, but inventors have enjoyed precious little of this support and are forced to survive and solve problems by relying on their own resources.
The biggest problem is the absence of market demand for inventions. According to Mykhailo Portnov, research manager of Zhytomyr-based SNVP Promex, and a co-developer of a system of inventions called “A Device for Sporadic Remote Signal Transmission,” sales of know-how are done via tenders in which the inventor is hardly the key figure. To attract buyers of scientific and technological innovations, the State Intellectual Property Department decided to organize a meeting between businesspeople and inventors.
Regrettably, the former failed to appreciate the initiative, and the inventions fair turned into an inventors’ conference. Mykola Paladiy, head of IPSD, described this attitude as exceptionally shortsighted: “Ukrainian business is currently busy reallocating property. Sooner or later, however, we will join the EU and then many of them will have to quit the market to supply only raw materials, unless they start introducing new, preferably Ukrainian, technologies in production now.”
Are entrepreneurs to blame for having too many other things on their mind, both in the past and today, to get down to the business of raising the technological level of production? “There is no innovating system in our country,” insists Volodymyr Parkhomenko, director of UkrTsNDT. “Now is not the time for lone craftsmen, so we must have a structure capable of monitoring the emergence, promotion, and implementation of every invention.” Inventors wholeheartedly agree with him. They point out that gaps in the state system that regulates inventions and patent support primarily affect inventors, who often can’t afford to buy the most elementary things. Everything that enthusiasts plan is more often than not implemented not thanks to the state’s attitude but despite it. Anatoly Pavlenko, creator of a device that protects against the harmful effects of PC video terminals, television sets, and other kinds of electronic equipment, pointed out that inventors and inventions in Ukraine are unmatched in the world. “We have developed a unique device to treat vascular diseases, which is capable of curing thousands of patients, but the state hasn’t given us a single kopiyka,” complains Liudmyla Tarshynova, director of the Bioregulator National Research Center, “We even lack funds to keep our premises in order, so the sanitary-hygienic station can order us closed down any day.”
One of the problems facing Ukrainian inventors is the total absence of advertising, so devices that can ease the lives of many people are gathering dust in warehouses. “I developed a device for treating congenital femoral dislocations and it has cured a hundred patients. I invented and built it myself, I use it and promote it myself, but I’m not much good at advertising. I think that there should be some regional departments to collect and disseminate information about such inventions. Also patents should be supported by the media.” Inventors have countless other proposals on the subject.
Sometimes an unfriendly environment hinders their endeavors. “I invented an anthrax vaccine and it has helped cure countless animals and practically secured this country against the disease,” says Anatoly Zaviriukha, Academician of Agrarian Science. “I’m working on a cancer vaccine and animal tests show that it’s effective. But I still have no patents. Most of my colleagues claim no such vaccine can exist. Why? Because it can’t.” He proposes setting up a special board of experts to assess and pass judgment on all inventions.
“We badly need this board,” agrees Volodymyr Buryi, inventor of a cosmetic method of suturing veins,” adding, “I’ve been in court for two years, fighting for my right to use my inventions. The monopoly of pharmaceutical firms that are acting hand in glove with physicians is a big obstacle in the inventor’s way, and inventors can often discover less expensive and simpler methods of treatment.”
All these problems were on the agenda of the meeting between the entrepreneurs and industrialists, but the participants practically ignored them. We won’t discuss why that meeting, so badly needed by both sides, was a failure. True, the inventors did not leave without advice and offers of help. “We have developed a model of the inventor-businessman-bank interrelationship,” declared Oleksandr Riabukhin, head of the Department of Marketing and Innovations at Pryazovsky State Technical University, adding, “This will help entrepreneurs come to an understanding with banks and convince them that investing in scientific progress pays.”
However, the light of hope is more like the beam from a pencil light. “The venture system is markedly underdeveloped in this country,” said Techinvest manager Serhiy Loboiko, “Our mentality has retained old stereotypes about the relationship between science and the state, inventors and businessmen. This prevents us from adequately responding to the current situation and scares capital away from the intellectual sphere, guiding it toward transactions with government securities and real estate.” Still, this businessman is in favor of discarding this stereotype, in which case he believes intellect in Ukraine will flourish. Mr. Loboiko sees a source of investment for innovations in the enlistment of large Western venture companies in the Ukrainian market. “We’ll find the money to finance Ukrainian inventors,” he stressed. Yet the impression was that his statement carried about as much enthusiasm as the bureaucrat’s cheerful declaration at the beginning of this feature.
