A 40-strong team from the Skolkovo Foundation, which has been dubbed Russia’s version of Silicon Valley, held a roadshow in London on Wednesday to present its projects to British and international investors. The visit took place according to the agreements reached in September 2011, during the British Prime Minister David Cameron’s visit to Moscow.

The man acknowledged as the boss of Skolkovo, billionaire Russian businessman Victor Vekselberg said, “Our target was explain to people what Skolkovo is, what the project is, how we are looking to cooperate with science community of the British … I strongly believe that after that roadshow we already have the number of the very practical projects, what we can realize near future. And even during this time we signed final agreement with Imperial College and BP to develop one of the projects linked to energy efficiency and we already have the list of our potential cooperation Vekselberg said.

A £9.3 million international consortium to make oil refining in Russia more efficient and environmentally sustainable was sealed at the Skolkovo Foundation Road Show presentation in London on Wednesday.

The Skolkovo Foundation has given official approval for the establishment of a Center of Applied Research on Heat Exchange and Catalysis, involving Imperial College London, the Boreskov Institute of Catalysis and BP. Researchers at the Center will run the UNIHEAT project, which will focus on increasing energy efficiency and reducing heat loss in oil refining by up to 15% by improving refining operations, enhancing oil production processes, and reducing CO₂ emissions. The Center will be funded by the Skolkovo Foundation and BP Russia.