The Fund of Infrastructure and Educational Programs (FIEP) of Rusnano has signed an agreement with Stavropol region an investment agreement on construction of the Southern Nanotechnological Center in Stavropol region, Rusnano reports.

Total cost of the project tops $41m, including $25.5m investment from the FIEP. Among other co-investors and co-founders of the center are two Stavropol state unitary enterprises – Management Company of Investment and Innovation Development of Stavropol Region and the Guarantee Fund for Support Small and Medium Entrepreneurship in Stavropol Region, as well as Stavropol production concern ESKOM.

The new nano-center will specialize in several directions: nanomaterials, nanobiotechnologies and nanoelectronics. Under plans, the building of the nanocenter in the town of Mikhailovsk of Stavropol region will be commissioned in 2014.

The project of the nanotechnological center in Stavropol region was selected in the third open contest for creating nanocenters in Russia.

The Fund of Infrastructure and Educational Programs was set up in 2010 in accordance with the Federal Law 211 “On Reorganization of the Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies”. The Fund’s goal is to develop innovation infrastructure in the nanotechnological sector, including realization of educational and infrastructure programs that had already been started by Rusnano.

The chairman of the advisory board, the highest collegiate governing body of the Fund, is Aleksey Ponomaryov, the deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. According to the Fund’s Statute, the board’s competencies, include the issues of defining priority areas of the Fund’s operations, its strategies and budget. The chairman of the board of the Fund is Anatoly Chubais, the Chairman of the board of RUSNANO, and the general director of the Fund is Andrey Svinarenko.