Cisco to Develop ‘Virtual Skolkovo’ Framework in Follow-Up Agreement With Skolkovo Foundation

Virtual Skolkovo Will Be a Business Innovation Ecosystem Without Walls to Accelerate the Geographic Reach and Footprint of ‘Technopolis Skolkovo’ as an Innovation Hub

MOSCOW – March 11, 2011 – Cisco and the Skolkovo Foundation today unveiled further details of joint efforts under the Skolkovo Project  to develop a ‘Virtual Skolkovo’. Based on a proposal from the Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG), Virtual Skolkovo will be a business innovation ecosystem that pushes the advantages of traditional clustering beyond physical boundaries into the virtual realm of new possibilities. It is founded on being:

• Community-driven by common interest, not physical proximity.
• Open to borderless and global collaboration.
• Enabled by a hybrid of communication technologies.

The memorandum of understanding was signed during a Cisco TelePresence® meeting between Victor Vekselberg, president of the Skolkovo Foundation, and Mohsen Moazami, vice president of Cisco IBSG for Emerging Markets and Globalization. The MoU outlines a three-tiered approach for the Virtual Skolkovo framework. The first will look at operational collaboration for faster decision-making; the second at creating a community from across different ecosystems; and the third at building global alliances through a multitude of networks and exchanges with international research centers, universities and economic players in various markets.

Key Facts / Highlights

• The project will culminate in a pilot business case, assessing Skolkovo-specific factors for generating innovative ventures and capital, intellectual property, partnerships, and business models around research and development, smart work centers and smart homes.
• The MoU for Virtual Skolkovo follows a memorandum of understanding signed last June by Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers and Victor Vekselberg during Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to Cisco headquarters in San Jose, Calif. According to that MoU, Cisco will share with the Skolkovo Fund global best practices and expertise in the creation of innovation clusters and put forward this expertise for the development of the Skolkovo Project. One of the areas of focus for Cisco and the Skolkovo project will be for Cisco to play a key role in the design of ‘Technopolis Skolkovo’.

Supporting Quotes:

• Victor Vekselberg, president, Skolkovo Foundation:

“I’m very happy to be accelerating our cooperation with Cisco through this MoU for Virtual Skolkovo. It’s very important that every aspect of the Skolkovo city embodies a new vision, a new approach and new technologies. Cisco’s proposal of Virtual Skolkovo, which aims to leverage collaborative and virtualization technologies and business models to deliver services, first to the “virtual” and then “physical” tenants of Skolkovo, will make this project a forerunner.”

• Mohsen Moazami, vice president, Cisco IBSG, Emerging Markets and Globalization:

“Most industrial clustering in recent times has regarded technology as an industry to be attracted or supported, rather than as a catalyst for a city’s own innovation and growth. Virtual Skolkovo is therefore a fantastic opportunity to exploit all the opportunities of the digital economy in terms of collaboration, partnerships, virtualization, and resource sharing to generate capabilities and innovation for Skolkovo city.”

Tags, Keywords:

Russia, Cisco, Skolkovo

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Supporting resources:

• Cisco website

About Skolkovo Foundation

Skolkovo Foundation (The Foundation for Development of the Center of Research and Commercializing of New Technologies) was officially registered in Moscow as part of the Skolkovo Innograd project. It is a nonprofit organization purposed to provide socially useful results in the development of innovations. The Foundation was established by Russian Academy of Sciences, state corporation “Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs” (Vneshekonombank), “Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies” (Rusnano), Bauman Moscow State Technical University, the Russian Venture Company and a Fund for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises in the scientific and technical area.

About Cisco

Cisco, (NASDAQ:CSCO, news, filings), is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com. Cisco equipment in Russia is supplied through its authorized channel partners by Cisco Systems International BV, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cisco Systems, Inc.

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