East-West Digital News (By Anna Andrianova) 3 April 2012
On the last week of March, a team from the Skolkovo Foundation came to Silicon Valley for the 8th annual Global Technology Symposium. The symposium has always had a bit of a Russia focus, and this year was no different, featuring a half-day of sessions exclusively on Russia.
Another highlight of this year’s event was the inaugural meeting of the U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission Innovation Working Group. The group was established at last year’s G8 summit by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama and is headed by Medevedev’s economic aide Arkady Dvorkovich and Robert Hormats, U.S. Undersecretary of State for Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs.
In its first session, the working group focused on particular problems that countries can work on together, exchanged opinions on the legal framework for innovation as well as future commercialization of the new technology.
“Russia has a deep R&D (Research and Development) base,” said Lorraine Hariton, special representative for commercial and business affairs at the U.S. Department of State,”but the actual understanding on how to commercialize R&D is something that needs to be developed.” She also said that Skolkovo was a great opportunity for Russia to built its own innovative ecosystem.