Feb 28 2008
The Centre for Telecommunications Value-Chain Research (CTVR), headquartered in Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, has announced that it has entered into a landmark research partnership with NEC Communication Systems, Ltd. (NCOS), part of Japanese technology giant NEC Group, focused on the emerging area of all-optical networking.
Pictured at the signing of the agreeement between CTVR and NEC (back row) Prof. Donal O'Mahony, Director, CTVR Hiroyuki Kudo, Senior Researcher, NEC Communications Systems Ltd (front row) Prof. John Hegarty, Provost, Trinity College Dublin Akira Arutaki, Associate Senior Vice President, Nec Communications Systems Martin Hynes, Director, IRCSET
This is the first significant partnership for Trinity-based CTVR in Asia-Pacific region .
Under the terms of the partnership, the CTVR and NCOS - with the support of the Irish Research Council for Science, Technology & Engineering (IRCSET) - will carry out research into the use of optical networks - communications networks based on optical fibres - to facilitate faster, lower cost Internet connections in the future.
Professor Donal O'Mahony, Director, CTVR, said: "This partnership is evidence that the investment programme into science, technology and innovation - spearheaded by Science Foundation Ireland and other state agencies, like IRCSET - is really working. This collaborative research will allow us to assemble world class research talent, which will ultimately lead to wealth generating economic activity downstream".
Martin Hynes, Executive Director, IRCSET, said: "We are delighted to be able to play a substantive role in backing this kind of research initiative. Ireland's future economic growth depends on our ability to continue to become a 'knowledge economy', where science and technology initiatives are supported by both industry and government".
Akira Arutaki, Associate Senior Vice President of NCOS, said: "Ireland and Japan have exceptional records in facilitating important innovations in the fields of technology and communications. We believe that this partnership between NCOS and the CTVR, through ongoing sharing of data and consultation, will build on this record and will result in breakthroughs in the use of optical networking to create faster, lower cost forms of communication".
The partnership will be supported by the IRCSET Enterprise Partnership Scheme, which will involve financial grants to partially fund the employment of post-doctoral researchers and PhD students to carry out research on all-optical networking and the convergence of optical and wireless networks.
Another element of the partnership will be the full time placement of a high level NCOS researcher at the CTVR laboratories in Trinity College. This individual will assist in guiding the ongoing research activity and in liaising between the CTVR and the NCOS research and development teams in Japan.