Sanctions, food import bans and public sabre-rattling between Russia and the West seemed like nothing more than a bad dream at the opening of the Startup Village, an international event for tech entrepreneurs, at the Skolkovo innovation centre on Thursday.
Former Skoltech president, U.S. professor Edward Crawley, talking to diplomats at Startup Village. Photo: Sk.ru.
At a meeting between Skolkovo Foundation president Viktor Vekselberg and foreign diplomats ahead of the event’s official opening Thursday, both sides were keen to show that cooperation in business is thriving.
“We like to believe that Skolkovo is the image of the new Russia,” Vekselberg told the assembled diplomats. “Russia would like to be part of the global economy and the global innovation initiative,” and the foundation appreciates the participation of foreign governments in its projects, he said.
Jonathan Brenton, minister counsellor of the British Embassy, was effusive in his praise for what the Skolkovo Foundation has achieved since it was set up six years ago with the aim of diversifying the Russian economy away from energy exports.
“One can only congratulate what has been achieved here, and I really admire, Dr. Vekselberg, your aspiration to create a new open business culture,” said Brenton.
“That’s not the easiest thing to do at this time (I dare to touch on politics) … so it’s so important that you have an institution like Skolkovo which is committed to openness and international cooperation,” he said.
Brenton was also at Skolkovo just last month for the Future of Pharma: U.K. & Russia conference organised by the Skolkovo Foundation, U.K Trade and Investment and the British Embassy in Moscow. Next week, a group of Skolkovo IT companies is going to the U.K. for a cybertech exhibition, another group of companies is going to attend a startup boot camp in London next month, and the U.K. is holding an event at the Startup Village itself, encouraging Skolkovo startups to come and set up in the U.K., Brenton said, listing the numerous cooperation projects.
Hiroshi Tajima, minister counsellor of the Japanese Embassy, said that major companies and organisations from his country such as Panasonic, Fanuc Corporation robotics company and the Japan-Russia Medical Exchange Foundation have already signed cooperation agreements with Skolkovo.
“Last year, Skoltech [the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology] agreed to receive the first exchange student from Tokyo Institute of Technology,” the diplomat said, expressing hope that the cooperation would continue.
Skoltech president Alexander Kuleshov made it clear his university is an international one and will continue to fund scholarships for foreign students, because “we would like to keep this international culture in our university.”
The Startup Village will celebrate a (literally) concrete example of Skolkovo’s international cooperation on Friday, with the opening at the innovation city of a research and development centre for U.S. aerospace giant Boeing.
“We were delighted in 2010 … to announce and sign with Viktor our plans to build here our training and research academy,” Sergei Kravchenko, president of Boeing in Russia and the CIS, told the international audience.
“We turned out to be the first large international company to open a campus here,” he said.
The brand new centre, which will open on Friday - the second day of the Startup Village - will house four simulators to train pilots.
“Building a commercial aeroplane simulator is probably as difficult as building a plane,” Kravchenko said.
The research centre will also use big data technology to analyse all possible situations in the cockpit and allow the company to reduce even further the risk of human error during flights, he said.
“That’s what we’re going to study here at Skolkovo with the best Russian researchers and IT scientists, something that will help the whole world to fly safer,” said Kravchenko.