Gates calls for academic partners in Microsoft research

Microsoft Corp. executives, stressing the importance of collaboration in the company’s fast-growing global research program, called for more R&D partners among European universities and small companies.  

“Universities have a key role to play” in Microsoft’s own research efforts, and in the growth of the economy, said Chairman Bill Gates at a company exhibition in Brussels. In the growth of the U.S. and regional economies, he said, “it’s the strength of the universities that have been key to that.” He further urged focusing resources on the best universities: “When you want to build a world-class institution, focus helps.”

The company also announced a new program to fund work-experience for 1,200 European computer-science students. The Students to Business programme covers eight European countries, plus South Africa and Turkey, and will place students for temporary work in more than 300 software companies. Jean-Philippe Courtois, president of Microsoft International, called for more development partnerships with small companies in Europe, citing several existing Microsoft programs aimed at collaborating with or spinning technology out to European start-ups.

Partnerships with university and private researchers are common now in multinational research organizations – but Microsoft has for the past few years been rapidly expanding its network of partners around the world. In Europe, it has about 500 academics with which it is collaborating in a wide range of projects. Overall, it said that by 2007 it expects to have invested a total of $500 million in R&D in Europe.

The R&D partners work with researchers in the company’s own five research laboratories around the world, and its many development centres. On Tuesday, Microsoft announced the opening of its latest European centre, in Portugal, to develop new speech-recognition and translation tools for its Portuguese-language products.