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Deputy PM Rogozin appointed Advanced Research Foundation Board of Trustees head

The Advanced Research Foundation is informally called an analogue of the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency

MOSCOW, January 24 (Itar-Tass) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has appointed 14 members of the Board of Trustees of the Advanced Research Foundation (ARF), RF Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin reported on his Facebook social network page.

“The Board of Trustees of the Advanced Research Foundation of 14 members has been appointed by Vladimir Putin, including me as Chairman of the Board,” the deputy prime minister wrote. “The appointment of the director general is expected these days. We’ll inform.”

The Advanced Research Foundation is informally called an analogue of the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The Russian structure will be engaged in the high-risk and fundamental research in the sphere of the Russian defence-industrial complex. In particular, the Foundation is necessary for financing and directing research in such spheres as robotics, new materials, microelectronics, and hyper sound. The organisation is planned to support the creation of innovative technologies not only of the military and special, but also of dual purpose.

The Foundation will be working in the interests of defence-industrial complex, however, it will be subordinated to the RF Government as a whole, and not solely to the Defence Ministry, as the American DARPA. “We are interested in breakthrough research not only for the needs of the RF Armed Forces, but also for other security structures of the country, in particular, the Interior Ministry and the Federal Security Service (FSB),” Rogozin said earlier.

The supreme governing body of the Foundation will be the Board of Trustees comprising 15 people who will be appointed by the President of the Russian Federation. The Board of Trustees, in turn, will appoint the managing directors and present to the head of state the candidature for the position of the Foundation’s director general. The number of personnel of the structure during the first years will be up to 100 people.

It is planned to create the Foundation in the form of a non-profit organisation. The Russian Federation will reserve the rights to the results of the implementation of the structure’s projects. The budget will be formed only from the funds that are planned within the framework of the state armaments program.

On January 21, the deputy prime minister held the first meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation.

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