Skoltech announced the departure of foreign teachers due to personal risks

After the imposition of sanctions, the Skolkovo Foundation lost some of its large foreign clients, and Skoltech - foreign customers and teachers.The question of the impact of sanctions on students from other countries remains open

Teachers began to leave the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) due to sanctions imposed on the Institute, the Skolkovo Foundation and the Skolkovo Technopark by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Treasury Department on August 2. RBC was told about this by the rector of the institute, Alexander Kuleshov, in a joint interview with the HEAD of the Skolkovo Foundation, Igor Drozdov.

“I received several resignations from teachers. it doesn’t matter to those who have American passports, whether it’s their only passport or a second one, for example, to a Russian one, it’s even useless to persuade in many ways, because for them it’s personal risks. A person can get five years, and they can twist him not only in the usa, but also in other countries, ”Kuleshov said.

Read an interview with Skoltech Rector Alexander Kuleshov and head of the Skolkovo Foundation Igor Drozdov on the RBC website at 7:00 Moscow time.

According to him, most of the Skoltech teachers know Russian, but many of them are those who some time ago went abroad, taught at Western universities and returned back with an American or European passport. He did not predict how many teachers might leave the institute, but indicated that he knew cases when Russian professors with an American passport decided to give it up. “Another thing is that, unfortunately, this is a complex procedure that will drag on for months, years,” the rector of Skoltech said.

Among Skoltech students, foreigners make up about 20%. How the sanctions will affect them, Kuleshov finds it difficult to say. “No one understands their legal status: what will happen if a person graduated from a university that is under sanctions. How will this affect his future career, prospects? Time will tell,” he said.

Foreign agents will be banned from teaching at state universities Politics

Back in the spring, Skoltech lost a dozen and a half commercial contracts with Philips, Bosch, TopCon and other American and European companies, for which the institute developed various technologies and products. According to Kuleshov, the loss of foreign contracts will affect revenue, but he does not predict exactly how. However, in addition to the monetary aspect, the break in relations will affect the ability to build competencies.

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“When working with an end user, a customer, you do not invent abstract conditions of the problem, its formulation, which really worries your client. <...> And unfortunately, you will not find a Philips-class customer in RUSSIA. In terms of medicine, the United States and Europe are on a completely different level than Eastern or Russian companies,” Kuleshov explained.

He noted that along with other companies, Philips is developing automatic diagnosis of cancer, covid-19 and other diseases in CT and MRI images. Skoltech is engaged in image recognition using artificial intelligence as part of a joint venture with Sber - SberMedII. “Before, we had the opportunity to offer these solutions for the Western market, but now, alas,” said the rector of the institute.

The Massachusetts Institute terminated cooperation with Skoltech because of Ukraine Technology and media

Sanctions also made it difficult for Skoltech to cooperate with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). “If in the spring I said that ties with MIT remain on a personal level, now the MIT professional community has received a circular prohibiting any work with Russian scientists. Let's see how it will be implemented. Until now, we have had a huge number of publications together with MIT,” Kuleshov said.

MIT at the end of February announced the termination of cooperation with Skoltech due to the Russian military operation in Ukraine, calling the actions of the Russian authorities unacceptable. At the same time, MIT said in a statement that they were proud to work with Skoltech; over the past decade and that the Institute representatives are in contact with the MIT staff who led the Skoltech software projects, their students, and will invite them to continue their research work.

How the sanctions affected the Skolkovo Foundation

The head of the fund, Igor Drozdov, in an interview with RBC said that the sanctions affect their transactions with foreign counterparties. “For example, we developed technology search programs in Russia to meet the needs of our foreign partners. Obviously, now they will not work with us, and we will provide such a service only to Russian companies,” Drozdov explained. According to him, foreign companies accounted for less than 10% of the total volume of accelerator program customers. At the same time, a significant part of foreign industrial partners froze relations back in March. This status implies that companies must either finance research activities in the Skolkovo territory, or look for some technology among startups, be a customer of acceleration programs, etc. “For example, The German manufacturer of electrical equipment Phoenix Contact was building a research center on the territory of the Innovation Center and, after announcing its withdrawal from the Russian market, handed it over to a local partner. Boeing, Panasonic, Schneider Electric and others had such research centers,” said Igor Drozdov.

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In the first quarter, the number of applicants for Skolkovo resident status, which provides tax and customs preferences, grant support, access to Skolkovo services, etc., also seriously decreased. But in the second quarter, the number of such applications turned out to be close to a record value, Drozdov said: 190 new residents appeared, while in the first quarter 130 companies received this status. According to preliminary estimates, the total revenue of Skolkovo resident companies for the first half of the year grew by about 15%. The volume of attracted investments increased by the same amount, the head of the Skolkovo Foundation noted. He stressed that among the residents, 80% of companies operate exclusively on the Russian market, that is, the current situation should not affect them. “The rest in the vast majority work in the markets of friendly countries.