A research cluster devoted to agriculture technology could appear at the Skolkovo Foundation in the near future, Skolkovo president Victor Vekselberg said Wednesday.
Speaking at a conference on innovating in times of economic difficulties, Vekselberg said plans to expand the activities of the foundation to include the agricultural sector were demand-driven.
“This sector is lagging behind but has huge potential,” Vekselberg said.
His words come a day after Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was quoted as saying by the TASS new agency that Russian agriculture has the potential not only to meet current domestic demand but also provide food for export.
"We should take additional measures in order to stimulate export,” TASS quoted Medvedev as saying. “But export is also a very important issue for enabling producers to earn money in other currencies and promote our opportunities," Medvedev said.
The move to add an agriculture cluster was motivated not necessarily by the need to develop import substitution, but to engage new players in innovations in the country, Vekselberg said.
Skolkovo currently has five so-called clusters - categories of companies that are admitted to the Skolkovo ecosystem: Information technologies, biomed, space, energy and nuclear.
Only startups engaged in those areas of business are considered for residency and all the perks that come with it: grants, investment, patent support, office space, tax breaks and so on.