Director of the Digital Technologies branch, secretary of the “Artificial Intelligence” working group at ANO “Digital Economy” Sergey Nakvasin said on his Facebook that Russia would provide grants to the developers of open source libraries in the field of artificial intelligence. The expert shared some details about this initiative: when and how much support will be provided, and which developers will be able to apply for grants.

According to “Artificial Intelligence” federal project, the support from the Foundation for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises in Science and Technology will be provided starting from 2021. So far, it is planned to provide up to 10 million rubles support to small teams (up to three people). In total, by 2024, it is planned to support about 70 teams of developers and individual developers in order to create and develop open source libraries. This is commensurate with the total number of the existing projects of this type in Russia.

Sergey Nakvasin

Director of the Digital Technologies branch, secretary of the “Artificial Intelligence” working group at ANO “Digital Economy”

To qualify for grants, the projects of developers will have to meet four main criteria:

• the project should contain a new concept and and effectively solve the problem;
• the project must declare results and indicators that are surely achievable;
• the project must be related to the field of artificial intelligence (determined in the manner prescribed by the Ministry);
• the results of the project should demonstrate the prospects of implementation and the potential for commercial implementation.

Later, according to Sergei Nakvasin, additional requirements for open library projects will be established. The criteria by which the project can be attributed to the field of AI are still being developed. Sergey Nakvasin also explains whether there are some other options for supporting developers, in addition to monetary grants.

With regard to open source libraries, we are talking only about monetary grants, but the foundation also plans to implement other tools, for example, acceleration support for projects.

Sergey Nakvasin

Director of the Digital Technologies branch, secretary of the “Artificial Intelligence” working group at ANO “Digital Economy”

Original (in Russian)