Tomsk University of Control Systems and Radio Electronics is expected to launch its new technology business incubator in March 2012, portal UNOVA reports, citing provost for innovation and international activity Alexander Uvarov.

The prospective incubator with a total estimated price tag of $17+m will reportedly house 30 projects employing 250 people.

The incubator will provide comprehensive support to projects in the field of nanotech, radiotech and telecom systems, intellectual power electronics, intellectual IT and control systems, information security and other innovative areas.

At the moment, there are 11 business incubators in the Tomsk region, including students’ and technological, the source said.

Tomsk University of Control Systems and Radio Electronics is one of Russia’s leading universities with a reported network of 125 innovative SMEs, including 16 having offices in Silicon Valley.

In September 2004 the university set up Russia’s first students’ business incubator known as Friendship with a reported mission to assist students in creating science-intensive SMEs, developing scientific schools and enhancing their links with the market. More than 30 project teams have been purportedly trained at the Friendship incubator since then.