Discussed were issues of Skolkovo Innovation Center’s cooperation with regional research organizations, as well as the possibility of establishing affiliate branches of the Center.
V. Vekselberg: Mr. President, tomorrow we will be holding the next regular meeting of the Foundation Board [Skolkovo], which will summarize the work of the Foundation over the past year and approve working plans for this year.
I would like to note that despite the fact that the Foundation operated only six months in the previous year, we were actually able to start the actual work of the Innovation Center. Already during this period we received and considered a significant number of applications, with 28 companies receiving the status of Foundation Participant.
D. MEDVEDEV: So we now have 28 resident companies?
V. Vekselberg: Yes, 28 resident companies. Eleven of them have received supporting grants from the Foundation, the rest having no need of our funding.
D. MEDVEDEV: What are these supporting grants of the Foundation, what do they include?
V. Vekselberg: This support is monetary.
D. MEDVEDEV: How much monetary support?
V. Vekselberg: These projects were provided with more than three billion rubles, three billion two hundred million, to be exact.
D. MEDVEDEV: How much does an average participant receive?
V. Vekselberg: The projects are very different, and everything depends on the stage of the project. Ranging from start-ups – which are insignificant sums...
D. MEDVEDEV: Just curious, what is the minimum contribution to a new start-up project? Of those projects that you have already considered?
V. Vekselberg: Around 600,000 dollars for the entire project.
D. MEDVEDEV: six hundred thousand, nevertheless, that is still a significant amount.
V. Vekselberg: Yes indeed, significant.
Such costly projects are due to the need for carrying out fairly expensive research, which requires the purchase of supplies and components, or a number of projects which require the purchase of equipment. In that case, of course, the projects are quite expensive.
I believe that we have already constructed a general and quite an efficient system of expert appraisals, set up Expert Boards for each of the five priority areas. These Boards are made up of mainly independent experts. And that, I believe is a great advantage – with decisions being made by experts in absentia.
D. MEDVEDEV: And how do these Expert Boards operate? You say that these are made up of basically independent experts. True, I do not really understand what a "dependent experts" really is, in my opinion an expert must always be independent.
V. Vekselberg: These are not employees of the Foundation, but people who have been either selected on the basis of recommendations of our Scientific Advisory Board, or recommended by our partners - universities and educational institutions.
The system works in the following manner: The application is received and we randomly select 10 experts to consider each project...
D. MEDVEDEV: And the experts do not know each other of course?
V. Vekselberg: Yes, they do not know each other. And through a special process, they assign a specific rating to the project. In essence a "Yes or No" - that is, this project meets all requirements [or does not meet all requirements]. This is not a matter of allocating moneys, but only a matter of compliance with the approach. That is how our system works.
I am pleased to note that the first Foundation members, more correctly, those companies receiving Foundation Participant status, expressed genuine surprise, and it is quite pleasant for us that they did not have to meet in person and prove the necessity and feasibility of these works. In such a way, I would like to add, we avoid all possible elements of subjective influence on these processes.
D. MEDVEDEV: That is you can "turn them down", not only during a personal meeting, but also in absentia.
V. Vekselberg: Well, in absentia, we can "turn them down", but as a rule, all the difficulties arise in the process of personal discussions of such issues.
In addition to running the processes associated with the selection and support of projects, a considerable amount of work was done related to the actual and physical start of construction. We held a tender to select a company that would propose the architectural concept of the Center to us. More than 20 companies participated in the tender, and two finalists were chosen. Their concepts have already been submitted to the Scientific Advisory Board, which tomorrow will make their final recommendation, and the Foundation Board will then choose one of the two companies.
D. MEDVEDEV: Are these Russian or foreign companies?
V. Vekselberg: We had Russian and foreign companies bidding, but the best proposals came from two companies, one French and one Dutch. Each of them already having some experience of working in Russia, and there is implied the participation of Russian...
D. MEDVEDEV: Subcontractors.
V. Vekselberg: Absolutely. Including architects as well.
Therefore, we plan this year to begin physical construction of the entire infrastructure system and are planning before the end of the year to erect the first office building. We already have its design project complete, and by November, we hope that the administrative center will move directly onto the territory of Skolkovo, to become associated no longer just abstractly, but quite concretely.
D. MEDVEDEV: That the administrative center will be moving there, of course pleases me, but it is very important that all those who will be doing research will be moving there as quickly as possible, because that is our goal, not only that our reputable managers have their offices, although this is indeed necessary.
I have one question I regularly put to colleagues, mostly governors, but not only to them. It concerns the place Skolkovo will occupy in the existing system of innovation development of our country. Very often they turn to me saying, "Very well then, you are creating this [city], but is this the only place? Have we not created anything up to now? Do we not have other good science centers today? "I just wish that the Foundation would have a vision of how it will develop in other regions, and what has happened to, say, those initiatives undertaken in cooperation with other regional innovation centers.
V. Vekselberg: First of all, I would like to emphasize that among the projects that we have selected (current legislation allows us to support companies remaining geographically far from Skolkovo), about half are regional companies. These are located in the Urals, the Moscow Region, and in other Russian regions. Therefore, we have not given any preferences to Moscow companies.
Secondly, of course, the Foundation does not see its mission in any way being in opposition to already existing research and education institutions, but rather to add a significant new element, which should help speed up the process and simply help move ideas and technologies from the educational and economic sector into the real business world. That is our task, which we specifically declare, and we understand the way to achieve this, and it is absolutely clear to us that we can only achieve this in cooperation and partnership with our best already existing institutions.
D. MEDVEDEV: And are you proposing to create some affiliates, or is this still too premature?
V. Vekselberg: We have signed agreements with 16 educational institutions and universities. Two days ago we signed agreements with 18 Academies of Science on collaboration and partnership. These are mostly regional, starting from Vladivostok. With regard to affiliates, this issue is quite clear, because to date the law is written in such a manner that it does not allow the presence of our structures in other places. Even though I do believe that this is not the only piece of legislation, that perhaps needs some additional work and refinement, and in general, we look at our project as a pilot project.
D. MEDVEDEV: Of course.
V. Vekselberg: The development of certain rules and mechanisms, which can then be distributed to all areas and regions.
D. MEDVEDEV: And therefore you think the law is working properly, or is there a feeling that something needs to be changed?
V. Vekselberg: I think that already there are some areas that require some clarification and correction. In our plans there is a possibility that by the end of the year we will make recommendations to the Government on those issues that require clarification.
D. MEDVEDEV: Please do so, because the law must be a living and working document.
V. Vekselberg: Yes, of course.
I would like to bring up an important issue, associated with the creation of the University in this project. We are, I hope, in the final stages of concluding an agreement with MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology], which will be our main partnership structure in this project. We are not simply negotiating here, but rather I hope that we will soon complete these talks. The fact that we took the MIT model as our basis, I think was the right decision. Because, objectively speaking, to date this institute is one with the best international experience in the construction of these kinds of research and educational centers.
D. MEDVEDEV: MIT, of course, a famous place. I understand that you need to have partnerships, in fact even for the business school that is located there [in Skolkovo].
V. Vekselberg: Absolutely.
D. MEDVEDEV: Because after all you are in the same place.
V. Vekselberg: And as to the question of commercialization - it is just a matter of attracting business-oriented professionals.