Skolkovo Foundation Council co-chairman Craig Barrett voiced confidence on Thursday that the project to diversify Russia’s economy would far outlive the current political troubles.
Barrett, Intel chairman until 2009, spoke at the final quarterly meeting of the Council, chaired by Skolkovo Foundation president Victor Vekselberg at the Hypercube.
“Let me reiterate that economics and politics moves much faster than research and innovation,” Barrett said by videoconference from the United States. “It’s important that we do everything we can to keep progress up on research and innovation that we’ve done in the past,” Barrett added.
The Skolkovo Foundation Council meeting at the Hypercube on Thursday. Photo: sk.ru..
He called for a diplomatic offensive to keep knowledge exchange out of the political firing line.
“From an international perspective we must work with governments not to put a limitation on scientific exchange,” Barrett said.
On that very theme, Vekselberg said he had the support of U.S. and EU representatives in Moscow to continue international collaboration for the foreseeable future.
Vekselberg added: “There are many uncertainties now in Russia, but the government support is there and we don’t have any financial impact from that side.”
Speaking of the political chill, Vekselberg told the council: “Everybody believes this political problem is just temporary.”
Other items approved by the board were minor changes to the budget, appointing two new members to the council including Skoltech president Edward Crawley, and the creation of an International Medicine Cluster at Skolkovo, funded by the Moscow City Government.
"The goal of the cluster is not for international scientists to show what they can do, but to give a boost to the local industry using internationally accepted research and methods," said Vladimir Efimov, head of the Moscow Department of City Property. That will help slow the trend of medical tourism, whereby Russians go abroad in seek of higher quality medical care, Efimov said.
Vekselberg called the initiative a potentially vital component of the Skolkovo ecosystem. Top of the agenda for next year is bringing online the first stages of the Skolkovo Technopark and Skoltech, the innovations-oriented university, he added.
The last council meeting was held in September in India, where Skolkovo signed a raft of agreements aimed at strengthening bilateral ties in education and research..
The previous council meeting was on the sidelines of the 17th St. Petersburg Economic Forum in June.