Swiss Innovation Center Delegates Visit Skolkovo
A delegation representing Innovaud, the innovation and investment promotion agency for the Canton of Vaud in Switzerland, visited Skolkovo Innovation Center on Monday with the goal of building mutual relations aimed at benefitting startups on both sides.
Skolkovo Foundation Chairman Arkady Dvorkovich. Photo: Sk.ru.
The chairman of the Skolkovo Foundation Arkady Dvorkovich greeted Innovaud’s director Patrick Barbey for a second time since the two last met in Switzerland. Mr. Barbey presented on Innovaud's role, both in terms of what services it offers to foreign companies seeking market entry and in terms of its support for domestic startups, SMEs and scaleups in their innovation projects. The Canton of Vaud shares multiple similarities with the Skolkovo Innovation Center; it is home to over 2000 technology companies, employing 50,000 highly skilled professionals, thus forming an innovation ecosystem by linking those businesses with world-class universities. Not unlike Skolkovo, its companies focus on cutting-edge fields such as foodtech, sporttech, healthcare, digital technology, space systems, and so on. From the Skolkovo side, presentations were given on Digital Health, the Skolkovo Softlanding program, and Sk[ai]HUB. As part of the visit, the delegation was also shown the Skolkovo Center for Innovation and the Internet of Things in Healthcare and the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech).
Innovaud Director Patrick Barbey (far right). Photo: Sk.ru.
During an interview with Sk.ru, Mr. Barbey stated: "In recent years, Russia and Skolkovo have been good partners in connecting with Switzerland, and some Russian companies have established themselves in our region. We want to expand this and would like for the startups and scale-ups in our region to discover Skolkovo and Russia as a potential market. We also want to offer Skolkovo companies the opportunity to enter Europe, because it is easy to do business there from Switzerland. We are here to build on the relationship in both directions for the benefit of all.”