How it started
On November 10, 2003, Yuri Osipov, the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences and an academician, together with Mikhail Prokhorov, the General Director and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Norilsk Nickel MMC, signed a General Agreement on cooperation between the Russian Academy of Sciences and Norilsk Nickel MMC in the field of hydrogen power and fuel cells.
 According to Yuri Osipov, the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences: “A very important agreement has been signed, one which I hope will be a long-term agreement in the field of hydrogen power. The interests of large Russian business and those of Russian science have concurred. We hope to fill this agreement with more specific content. Let it serve the best interests of Russia.”
 According to Mikhail Prokhorov, the General Director and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Norilsk Nickel MMC: “For Norilsk Nickel this agreement has a strategic value. It will make the basis that will enable our country to convert from a great supplier of raw materials to a great technological power. The basis of this agreement is high technology, which will be the basis for development of the world economy as a whole over the next 10 years.
On December 9, 2003, a joint session of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Board of Directors of Norilsk Nickel took place at which an Investment Program for discovery, research, and development activities on hydrogen power and fuel cells was adopted. To implement the Agreement and the Investment Program a national innovation company named New Energy Projects was founded. 
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