From Development to Mass Production: Infrastructure for High-Tech Manufacturing

Technological leadership is typically associated with proprietary R&D, new products, and modern manufacturing facilities. But between development and mass production lies a substantial body of work that isn't always visible behind the final result. A prototype needs testing, the technology must be refined through pilot batches, and the production process has to be made reproducible. In parallel, you need engineers, metrology, documentation preparation, suppliers, and initial customers.

In the coming years, this challenge becomes particularly pressing. Presidential Decree No. 309 sets a target to increase by 2030 the share of domestically produced high-tech goods and services based on proprietary development lines by one and a half times compared to 2023, as a proportion of total consumption.¹ The Federal Law on Technological Policy specifically highlights technology development infrastructure, including facilities for validation, prototyping, testing, and pilot production.² In other words, the question is no longer just how many new technologies can be created, but how many of them can be brought to industrial application.

To accomplish this, a company doesn't necessarily need to have all the required equipment and expertise in-house. Some work can be performed at a technology park or engineering center, some at a university, research institution, or another company's facility. What matters more is this: the needed operation must be available at the moment when a project would otherwise stall without it. This is precisely where regional infrastructure begins to function as a practical tool for industrial development.

Different starting positions

Regional capabilities vary considerably. In a study by the Institute of Regional Economics and Intergovernmental Relations at Financial University, infrastructure conditions were assessed across 85 constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The evaluation considered industrial-technological, financial-institutional, digital, human capital-educational, and scientific-technological characteristics. The composite indicator ranges from 2.26 to 88.36 points, with an average of 44.62 points.³