Last night Skolkovo attended CNBC's Brainstorm session

January 25, 2012 4:09pm

Last night Skolkovo attended CNBC's Brainstorm session, "Unleashing Energy Innovation"  #wef#SkolkovoFoundation : On the first night of the 2012 World Economic Forum in Davos, CNBC and the Young Global Leaders' Taskforce on Energy brought together 70 of the world's top thinkers from the worlds of finance, policy, business and academia.

With the support of the Skolkovo Foundation, the brainstorm sought to answer the question of how we can reach the UN goal of sustainable energy access for all by 2030.

Looking at finance, policy and technology, the ideas were broad, with many participants feeling that community based, grass-roots systems are the answer. Most felt that the technological answers are already out there - the challenge now is to create policies and financial models that allow a flexible prepay system to spread the reach of those energy sources far and wide.

The Young Global Leaders will be fully digesting the outcomes over the coming days and will report back to the World Economic Forum.

The Skolkovo Foundation

The Skolkovo Foundation has the mandate from the Russian Government to help accelerate the transformation of Russia from a resource-intensive to an innovation-based economy through strategic partnerships with leading scientists and corporations (currently numbering over 310 companies and start-ups.) The Foundation aims to strengthen the links between Russian and international science, technology, education, entrepreneurship and investment communities. To achieve this objective it is overseeing the creation of the Skolkovo Innovation Centre composed of five R&D clusters, a Technopark, the Skolkovo Institute of Technology (a new graduate research University established in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Skolkovo city, located near Moscow. Together these entities will establish a vibrant eco-system of technology innovation and entrepreneurship. The Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in May of 2010 by the Russian Government with a grant of USD 5 billion. For more information: http://www.sk.ru/en/

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