The founding President of the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology Edward Crawley told about his expectations on the Forum and interesting discussions in the exclusive interview to the “Voice of Russia’.
What are your expectations of the Forum in view of the possibility to meet the members of the renewed Russian Government?
Well I think that the Forum is an important place for people of interest in economic development indeed. The personal action that one makes at the meeting like this is very important. Not so much because they actually allow decisions to be made at the forum. But they lay the ground work for trust and communications for the future.
What issues are you going to discuss during the forum? What kind of discussions are the most interesting for you?
Well I think that the Forum will be interested on the role of the universities in the development of the economies. Increasingly around the world governments understand that economic development is an important function of the universities, but the universities still are searching for ways to help implement this. And I think that the Forum will provide an opportunity for the universities leaders and commercial leaders to engage in discussions as well as government leaders.
I know that you wanted to say several words about the development of the Skolkovo University. So how do you see the future development of Skolkovo?
Well I will tell you about the present development which is accelerating enormously. We already have admitted our first class of students, we’re announcing our first professors, we intruded the senior-manager team, we’re giving innovation programs support to universities in Russia. And we are planning our education based on the interest in inputs from the industry. So all of our activities in Skolkovo are already operated and accelerated.
Could you tell us about the development and the cooperation with the Russian government?
Well, of course the Russian government is the main sponsor of the Skolkovo Project although there are considerable private outsource of the investment. But I think it is fair to say that the larger the Skolkovo project and in particular the SkolkovoTech or University are important part of the larger program for the transformation of the Russian economy which is of course of the critical interest in St.Petersburg.
Thank you for the interview!
Source: Voice of Russia