EMC, a developer and provider of information infrastructure technology and solutions headquartered in Hopkinton, Mass., will establish an R&D center in the Skolkovo Foundation's Innovation Hub in Russia.

The new EMC facility will focus on development of cloud infrastructure solutions and big data analytics technologies for bioinformatics and energy efficiency. Located at the Skolkovo Innovation Center, created by the nonprofit to promote new technologies development and commercialization, the new facility will work in close cooperation with EMC's existing R&D center in St. Petersburg.

EMC also plans to collaborate on research projects in these and other areas with Russian universities, government agencies and local and multinational companies in the Skolkovo community.

EMC initially plans to focus on developing cloud infrastructure and big data analytics solutions for:

• Bioinformatics—Cloud and big data analytics technologies that will enable the study of larger quantities of biological data, at a higher precision and in shorter periods of time, to accelerate advancements in personalized medicine. These technologies are expected to be applied to molecular medicine, pharmaceuticals, biomedicine and industrial biotechnologies.
• Energy Efficiency—Big data analytics tools that will provide actionable intelligence from the massive amount of new smart metering and smart grid data to benefit energy-generating infrastructures in Russia and the rest of the world.
• Skolkovo Cloud Infrastructure—EMC also expects to be a technology provider for the Skolkovo community's cloud infrastructure supporting organizations generating massive amounts of data.

EMC's Skolkovo center will be part of its global network of R&D centers operating in Brazil, China, India, Ireland, Israel, Singapore and the U.S. Each center is focused on innovative R&D of EMC offerings such as cloud, big data, security, virtualization, information management and information governance.

“The new center at Skolkovo will be EMC's first to focus on cloud and big data technologies for bioinformatics and energy efficiency and our efforts there could completely transform the way data in these areas is analyzed and stored,” said Joe Tucci, Chairman and CEO of EMC.