U.S.-Russia Innovation Working Group Meets in Washington, DC

On April, 24-26 2013 meetings of the Innovation Working Group of the U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission were held in the United States of America. The Russian delegation was headed by the Deputy Prime Minister - Chief of the Government Staff, V.Y. Surkov.

The event was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, headed by the coordinator of the Working Group, Stats Secretary – Deputy Minister of Economic Development Oleg Fomichev. The Russian delegation included representatives of federal executive authorities of the Russian Federation – the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, the Association of Innovative Regions , as well as a number of representatives of the Russian regions, the leading Russian universities, institutes of development, innovative regional clusters and innovative companies.
April, 24, Innovation Working Group meeting was held in Microsoft. It included working sessions and discussions on the commercialization of scientific researches, including the specifics of entering the Russian and American markets for innovative companies, the role of business incubators. The expert proposals on improvement of the rules of law regulating innovation activities in Russia and in the United States were discussed. A special session was devoted to cooperation between universities, innovation clusters, as well as to cooperation in the field of biotechnology. The session was held at the level of the Heads of the Working Group - Deputy Prime Minister - Chief of the Government Staff, V.Y. Surkov, and Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Robert D. Hormats who discussed the main results of Group activity and announced new proposals for joint projects.
During the meeting, four memorandums of understanding were signed between Cisco and the Fund "Skolkovo" Cisco and Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, non-commercial partnership "Promoting biotechnology cluster Pushchino" and the Commission on Economic Development of Maryland, as well as between Wisconsin Technology Innovation Initiative of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and biopharmaceutical cluster "North" on the basis of Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.
April, 25, the delegation visited the National Institutes of Health (National Institutes of Health). The participants got acquainted with the various programs of the Institute and its activities, including the financing of researches, technology transfers, and clinical medicine. Also was visited the business accelerator "1776."
April 26, the members of Innovation Working Group met with the management of the University of Maryland and representatives of the administration of Maryland. During the meeting consultations on cooperation between the State of Maryland and the Nizhny Novgorod region, including in the framework of the Innovation Corridor, were held. The program also included visits to BioLab Center and Bio Park University, as well as visit to the incubator of the University (UM Incubator). The Russian side was presenting activities of Russian biotech clusters.
Organizational support and coordination of the meetings during the visit were provided by the Embassy of the Russian Federation to the United States of America and the Trade Representation of the Russian Federation in the United States of America.