The Skolkovo Foundation is ready to apply its experience to the Russian innovations sector as a whole, the foundation’s president Victor Vekselberg told a meeting of the board on Tuesday.
Skolkovo Foundation president and co-chair of the board Victor Vekselberg opening the meeting. Photo: Sk.ru.
“The government is now starting to review a lot of initiatives around innovation, and together with our government partners – the economy, finance and science ministries – we will prepare a vision for a new step we would like to call the Skolkovo II project,” Vekselberg told the board meeting.
“We’d like to change regulations a little, and see more cooperation with Russian innovation institutes like Russian Venture Company and Rusnano,” he said, calling for feedback on the issue from members of the board.
State Duma deputies and Deputy Finance Minister Andrei Ivanov said in April that the Skolkovo format should be rolled out around the country, after weeks of speculation in the Russian media that the responsibilities of other innovations institutions could be transferred to Skolkovo.
Skoltech's founding president Edward Crawley said university staff were very excited about the campus under construction. Photo: Sk.ru.
Ivanov, a member of the board, said Tuesday that Skolkovo had surpassed its KPIs, despite difficulties with the innovation city’s construction resulting from a series of bankruptcies in the construction industry.
One of the biggest buildings under construction is the new campus of the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech). Skoltech’s founding president, MIT astronautics and aeronautics professor Edward Crawley, said faculty members were thrilled by what they have seen so far.
“Our faculty are now starting to go there on tours, and are extremely excited about the quality of the space and the wonderful facilities we will have,” he told the board meeting.
“This will be a benchmark university building of the world, people will come to see this building.”
Summing up Skoltech’s results, Crawley said the young research university’s publication statistics were highly competitive, that many courses had been transferred from MIT, and a translational programme to help “cross the chasm between research in the laboratory and commercial activities” was in place and had already shown results, with about 20 percent of graduates now working at startups.
Craig Barrett, the co-chairman of the board and the retired CEO of Intel Corporation, said while the U.S. is currently focused on its upcoming presidential election, Skolkovo – launched six years ago with the aim of developing hi-tech innovation and entrepreneurship in Russia – has not been forgotten.
“People continually ask if I’m still involved with the Russian innovation project, so Skolkovo is on people’s minds here,” said Barrett, though he added that conversations about presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton had replaced discussions about technology and innovation.
“The need for Skolkovo and Skoltech is more important now than ever: with the world economy slowing down, innovation and entrepreneurship are more important than they have ever been,” said Barrett, who was taking part in the board meeting by video link. “The project has even more significance now than when it started.”