International
Silicon Valley in Russia
In summer 2010 the Russian government decided to establish a complex for scientific and technological innovation in Skolkowo near Moscow modelled on Silicon Valley in California. The entire infrastructure for around 30,000 researchers will be built in three to seven years. Funding of around 102 million euros has been earmarked for the planning phase in 2010, and the entire budget for 2011 to 2015 will be 2.8 billion euros. In terms of research, the new city of innovation will focus on energy efficiency and conservation, nuclear technologies, medicine, information technology and telecommunications. Special conditions apply for companies and institutions. Siemens and MIT have declared their willingness to take part in the project, and Cisco and Nokia have also indicated their interest. Furthermore, an agreement has been signed with the Russian Kurchatov Institute. Schores Alfjorow, a Russian Nobel Prize laureate for physics, and Roger David Kornberg, an American biochemist and Nobel Prize winner, have been appointed the centre’s scientific directors.
