In April, the Skolkovo Foundation, chaired by Vekselberg, announced that it was collaborating with MIT on the creation of a new science and technology graduate university outside Moscow called SK Tech.

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The committee in turn recommended the creation of an Innovation Council made up of eminent experts to advise on science and technology.

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The Initiative, a 10-year plan to provide greater work-related flexibility to women and men in research careers, is run by the National Science Foundation (NSF), which is the leading source of Federal grants for many fields that are crucial to US technology development and job creation, including computer science, mathematics, and the social sciences.

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"By linking up computer technology with the science of olfaction, we can speed up the creation of new compounds, and it can take us into areas we've never dreamed of, " says Rahman Ansari, vice president of technical affairs at Quest International, a unit of British chemical giant ICI that developed Este Lauder's blockbuster Tommy Girl.

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And the only way to do that is to make the key investments in our infrastructure, in innovation, in the industries and the technologies that will drive job creation in the future in America, and in education so that we have the kind of educated workforce in science and technology and engineering and other areas that we need in order to win the future.

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