January 25 to 26 saw the Massachusetts Institute of Technology hosting Russia's political and economic elite: First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, deputy prime ministers Sergei Sobyanin and Alexei Kudrin, Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina, presidential aide Arkady Dvorkovich, Sberbank president German Gref, head of Rusnano Anatoly Chubais, rector of the Academy of National Economy Vladimir Mau and general director of RBK Igor Agamirzyan.
MIT staff ran a seminar for them about the United States' experience of developing scientific ideas and taking them to market. The main thrust of the seminar was examining MIT's experience in supporting and promoting innovation, and how that is possible in university conditions, Dvorkovich related. "We wanted to understand how they manage it, but most countries — including Russia — don't," he said.
"We visited laboratories, business centers and incubators," Kudrin shared. "We saw how breakthroughs in science, research and innovation come out of very modest conditions." The seminar was very useful, "from the point of view of what organizations, mechanisms and environments they support and nurture," he considered.
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