The American business and scientific communities are interested in the Skolkovo project and will support the Russian government in turning it into the world’s biggest alliance, said Ellis Rubinstein, president of the New York Academy of Sciences, in an interview with Infox.ru.
“I believe the Russian President is seriously set for creating incentives for bringing the best of the best from all over the world to Russia and he uses the Skolkovo concept, on the one hand, to get the biggest universities, especially US academia, involved in the project and, on the other hand, to attract big businesses that can help Russia modernise the existing economy and turn it into an economy of knowledge,” stated Ellis Rubinstein in the interview with Infox.ru.
According to Rubinstein, the US business and scientific communities are interested in this innovation project and are willing to take part if Russian leaders “still insist on building a new model of academic and scientific networking.” “This will require very hard work and a serious focus from all members of the Russian government but it will give Russia a chance to make a giant leap from its currently lagging position and become a leading country,” noted Ellis Rubinstein.
He also reported that Skolkovo was now working closely with MIT and a number of big companies, including Cisco and Ericsson. “We have recently proposed an alliance not just with one American university but with our partner universities numbering around 40,” the President of the New York Academy of Sciences added. “In this perspective, Skolkovo is in a very good position for building, over a short period of time, a global partnership that would be completely new to this world.” <…>
Founded in 1817, the New York Academy of Sciences has more than 20 thousand members in 150 countries. In the past, Academy members have included Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe.
The Academy’s President recounted that US business leaders will work together with the Russian government to “build a giant incubator or accelerator with brilliant young experts in key strategic areas, including ‘green’ science, medical research and IT, where they would have a chance to find interesting ways to establish new businesses and build partnerships of research and manufacturing entities.”
“In this case, I can guarantee that all our global partners, universities from all over the world and other organisations, would love to come to Russia,” he added.
Mr Rubinstein also stressed that the Russian corporation Rusnano was currently one of the global leaders in nanotechnologies. Besides, Russia has a very strong information and communications technology sector.