Microsoft opens more research centres in Europe

Microsoft is to open more research centres in Europe, in a move to step up its research collaboration and boost students' interest in the technology field.

At a research conference in Brussels, the software giant said it signed a collaborative agreement with French state computer lab INRIA, is opening a computational biology centre with the University of Trento, Italy, and plans to set up an "innovation centre" to showcase its technology in Brussels. The European initiatives are part of a Microsoft drive to expand its global research network. So far, company officials said, the company has about 1,000 researchers in Europe and plans to add more in coming years.

The French agreement entails the creation of a joint research lab with INRIA - the Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique in Paris - and could be opened early next year. The two parties signed a memorandum of understanding in April. "We have now signed the contract," said Andrew Herbert, the managing director of Microsoft Research Ltd., in Cambridge, UK, told Science|Business. "I expect it will be opening in spring next year."

The laboratory, which will be named the Microsoft-INRIA Institute for Computational Science, is under the Microsoft European Science Initiative, announced in February by Microsoft's chairman, Bill Gates. It will "focus on accelerating innovation and advances in new kinds of science and computing that can generate long-term benefits to science and society", according to a statement.

Separately Microsoft will open an innovation centre in Brussels in April 2006, according to Jean-Philippe Courtois, the president of Microsoft International, who was speaking at the Microsoft European Research and Innovation Day in Brussels. The centre is intended to showcase latest innovations, he said.

The software giant will also be opening a Microsoft Research-Trento University Centre for Computational and Systems Biology in Italy on Thursday. The centre, which is partnered with the University of Trento, will be staffed by Italian professional researchers and postgraduate specialists.

"Universities are one of our most important relationships because that's where I am going to recruit my new researchers from," said Herbert. "I would say 50 per cent of my researchers come from academia."

Microsoft currently has about 1,000 researchers in Europe, according to Herbert. He expects "a few hundred" will be joining Microsoft worldwide next year.

Herbert said the initiatives of research labs and centres are necessary as there is evidence of a decline in students' interest in entering into the R&D field.

"Everything now is in a digital and knowledge economy. That means economically Europe needs to have a large talent pool of smart kids," said Herbert. "But there are fewer kids applying for science and engineering. We are seeing some of the same trends in Europe. Yet that’s the one job where the future lies."

The supply of university graduates in physical sciences has fallen sharply over the past decade, according to a study conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development last month. This study found that in some countries enrolment trends for fields such as mathematics, physics and chemistry, have seen a decline in the number of university graduates of up to 30 to 50 per cent over the past eight to ten years in physical sciences.

"I am sure over the next few years we will be creating more research centres in other areas with other groups," said Herbert. "The innovation centres and the development centres are making sure that academia could participate in our organisation, which is very important."