IBM AND THE LITHUANIAN GOVERNMENT SIGN PROTOCOL OF INTENT TO SET UP A LARGE RESEARCH CENTER IN LITHUANIA
Updated 2010-10-26
The Lithuanian Government and the multinational computer, IT and technology corporation IBM have signed a letter of intent setting up a joint research center in Lithuania earlier today at the headquarters of the IBM in New York. The document has been signed by Andrius Kubilius, Prime Minister and Reeves Thomas, IBM`s global vice president for research and intellectual property licensing. The agreement regarding the largest IT project in the history of Lithuania is expected to be signed within six months.
The future center will conduct research in the strategic IBM areas: nanotechnology, life sciences, healthcare innovation, and intellectual property for innovative management. Researchers will study advanced nanotechnologies including an integrated silicon photonics, new photovoltaic and photonic materials. Lithuanian university researchers working in the field of innovations will cooperate with the center.“Joint research center with a global high-tech giant undoubtedly marks a huge achievement for Lithuania. This means that out of a country applying innovations we are turning into a country creating innovations for the entire world," Andrius Kubilius, Prime Minister said.
“It is a specific step towards our ambition to become a regional innovations center in 2020," Dainius Kreivys, Minister of Economy said. According to the Minister the joint research center will keep Lithuania’s researchers from leaving the country and provide an opportunity to work in the world-class laboratories.
IBM is among the companies holding the largest number of patents in the world: it ranked fourth in 2009 on the Top Ten list of 2009 patent recipients in the U.S., with the number of patents several times exceeding its closest high-tech rivals. In 2009 alone IBM inventors received 4,914 patents for a range of potentially world-changing inventions, such as sending alarms to hearing impaired individuals during fire.
Prime Minister Kubilius and Minister Kreivys are on a working visit to the U.S. with a goal to attract investments to Lithuania’s high-tech sector.
