‘We hope to create on the European scale something similar to MIT’
In the latest step toward creating what is imagined to become Russia’s version of Silicon Valley, MIT officials and a Russian non-profit foundation this morning signed a contract that will guide their mutual development of a research university in Skolkovo, Russia.
The larger development initiative has already attracted involvement from the likes of Google, Intel, Microsoft and IBM, with Cisco alone planning to invest $1 billion over 10 years.
From this morning’s Boston Globe:
MIT and the (Skolkovo Foundation) inked a 70-page agreement — the result of nearly two years of negotiations — that calls for them to partner in minute detail on curriculum design, recruitment, and even job descriptions. “It won’t be under MIT’s brand. It’s going to be an independent entity,” (a foundation official). “But we hope to create on the European scale something similar to MIT, prestigious and well-designed.”
The new university, to be called SkTech — pronounced “ess-kay tech” — will offer master’s and doctoral degrees in five interdisciplinary areas: energy science, biomedicine, information technology, space science, and nuclear science. Much of the funding for the school is expected to be provided by the Russian foundation.
More details are available at MIT’s Web site devoted to the project and in this press release.
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