![Jean Botti, EADS chief technical officer (right), and Viktor Vekselberg, executive president of the Skolkovo Foundation, signed an agreement in Paris on March 2 outlining EADS’s intention to participate in the Russia-based Skolkovo Innovation Centre. [Photo: Airbus]](https://www.ainonline.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=3840,format=webp,quality=95/https://backend.ainonline.com/sites/default/files/styles/fpsc_1200x630/public/uploads/2013/06/031111_PIC5.jpg?h=f23d4b5e&itok=Q97NGpSk)
EADS has backed a pledge to launch a big push to strengthen its presence in new markets around the world, while seeking to avoid costly engineering and planning errors, by signing a new memorandum of understanding (MoU) on research collaboration with Russia’s Skolkovo Foundation. Jean Botti, EADS chief technical officer, and Viktor Vekselberg, executive president of the Skolkovo Foundation, signed the agreement in Paris on March 2. It underscores EADS’s intention to participate in the Russia-based Skolkovo Innovation Center, a high-technology business hub to be built in the Moscow region.
According to the MoU, EADS will establish a center dedicated to conducting research in the areas of aerospace technology, including telecommunications and navigation, efficient energy technologies and information technology. The center will also collaborate with the Skolkovo Institute of Technology and other Russian scientific institutions “to identify technologies and competences of mutual interest.”
