Startups from the Classroom: Aerospace University Opens a Tech Park in St. Petersburg
GUAP, an 85-year-old aerospace university, is now operating in a startup-driven model, with equipment rentals and real industrial contracts from Gazprom Neft.
St. Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation, known as GUAP, is evolving beyond a traditional university. On Peredovikov Street, five new tech park facilities have opened. They will take on real industrial orders.
85 Years as a Launch Point
GUAP marked its 85th anniversary in January. This milestone is turning into a reset point: a long-standing aerospace institution is now moving into startup development and robotic systems. The new complex includes a Center for Unmanned Transport Systems, a Tsentr kollektivnogo polzovaniya (Shared Use Center equipped with tools for startups, including 3D printers, a sandblasting chamber, a robotic cell, and a milling machine), a children’s Quantorium, the InduTekh industrial testbed, and an Office of Technology Leadership. The latter ensures projects get to a stage where they can be presented to customers.
Until recently, universities and factories operated in parallel worlds. Researchers wrote dissertations, while production teams were focused on production work. That is starting to change. As St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov said at the opening, the tech park will help close the gap between education and industry needs, involve students in solving real-world problems, and speed up how projects move into real-world use.
“Seamless Sky” Indoors
The tech park is built around three national technology priorities: space, unmanned systems, and automation. GUAP is positioning itself as an integrator rather than a contractor. Its partner network includes companies such as Obukhov Plant, Power Machines, Gazprom Neft, Indutekh, and other industrial players. These companies will provide students with real engineering tasks.
That approach should help new technologies reach real-world use faster – from logistics drones to smart manufacturing systems. For example, the Center for Unmanned Systems includes an indoor flight test zone, modern machine tools, 3D printers, and UAV control systems. This setup allows drones to be tested indoors with centimeter-level precision, simulating what engineers describe as a “seamless sky.”
“In our center, we plan to develop new unmanned transport systems, test them with our industrial partners, and solve specific industry challenges that are critical for Russia today,” said Anton Savelyev, director of the Center for Unmanned Transport Systems at the GUAP tech park.
University labs are starting to resemble small-scale production sites. GUAP students already have access to industrial equipment such as industrial robots, CNC milling machines, and additive manufacturing systems – equipment that until recently was limited to specialized defense design bureaus.
Robot Bakes Pancakes
In 2024, the Ministry of Industry and Trade began building a national network of industrial robotics centers, with the main hub in Innopolis. GUAP has built on this trend by launching InduTekh, a collaborative robotics lab where humans and robots work side by side. The site already includes a robotic welding cell and even a robot designed to cook pancakes. Service robotics is also part of the strategy, showing that the university is thinking beyond heavy industry.
That same year, St. Petersburg Polytechnic University announced a similar center focused on unmanned aerial systems. But GUAP is going further. Instead of isolated labs, it is building an integrated ecosystem. In February 2026, the university also launched a specialized lab for testing unmanned systems in transportation scenarios.
Last month, Moscow opened its first full-cycle robot testing center. Together, these initiatives form a continuous pathway: school students start in Quantorium programs, university students move into labs, and engineers advance to large-scale testing grounds. This system is now starting to work in practice.
Globally, the same trend is emerging. In November 2024, Empa and Imperial College London launched DroneHub for sustainable robotics. In the U.S., Full Sail University opened a Drone Innovation Center in December 2025. The difference lies in focus: Western projects emphasize sustainability and construction, while Russia is prioritizing industrial independence and logistics.
From Labs to Market
The hardest part is still ahead. GUAP now needs to turn its infrastructure into real products and revenue. The project is backed by the Prioritet-2030 (Priority-2030 program), which was updated in 2025 and requires universities to adopt a product-oriented approach. Institutions are no longer evaluated by the number of dissertations but by how their technologies support industries such as energy and aerospace.
GUAP is testing a model in which the Shared Use Center operates like a coworking space. A startup can rent equipment, build a prototype, and move toward production. If this model proves successful, St. Petersburg could see dozens of new tech startups emerging directly from university environments. This shift is already underway on Peredovikov Street.
