Earlier this week, the Skolkovo Foundation and the French global energy engineering company Schneider Electric inked an agreement that gives Schneider Electric residency status in Skolkovo, the state-sponsored innovation hub under construction outside Moscow, and paves the way for opening its own R&D center there, Schneider Electric reports.
The innovation center, which is expected to be fully on-line by 2016, will aim at improving electricity distribution management for electrical grids, developing stand-alone generator and multipurpose pipeline control systems, and working on other innovative energy solutions. Research staff will account for about 90% of the center’s 100-strong staff, Schneider says.
Viktor Vekselberg, president of the Skolkovo Foundation and one of the Russian signatories for the agreement, underscored the importance of cooperating with sector flagships like Schneider and hailed the French firm’s plans to develop, alongside its other research, a ‘smart’ grid system for Skolkovo itself.
Jean-Pascal Tricoire, President and General Manager of Schneider Electric, who also signed the agreement, pointed out that the deal will help his company “reaffirm our long-term strategic plan to invest in innovation in Russia.”
As a company that pours more than one billion euros a year into global R&D, Schneider Electric already has a development facility in Moscow.
