Mark Samuels

It is almost impossible to avoid thinking about the Boston-based comedy series Cheers as you walk around the US city.

There are an incredible number of bars called Cheers in the city’s centre, and through some curious process of involuntary association, thinking of the show automatically makes you think of the theme tune.

According to the lyrics, ‘making your way in the world today takes everything you’ve got’. These words were entrenched in my brain by the time I reached Cambridge, Massachusetts, to meet top researchers at mobile phone firm Nokia and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

But the sentiments are appropriate for the complex world of telecoms research and development (R&D). As Computing highlighted recently, R&D spending by private sector organisations has never been lower.

And a recent survey by the European Commission found that Europe’s R&D spending has been declining since 2000, standing at just 1.9 per cent of GDP – and almost half the rate devoted to research investment in China.

But the Nokia Research Centre (NRC) Cambridge is a trail-blazing model of what can be achieved by a partnership between business and academia.

Nokia could have chosen to work in a closed environment, keeping its technological advancements under lock and key. Instead, the phone company linked up with interdepartmental researchers at MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSail).

And it was clear, as NRC Cambridge and CSail researchers demonstrated some of their leading-edge mobile developments, that the benefits are numerous.

Two sets of minds are clearly better than one. And when they include world wide web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, you can understand why the partnership is producing exciting technologies across such areas as the semantic web and language communication.

The open nature of the initiative – progress can be viewed on the NRC Cambridge web site – means that external experts are not excluded from the process.

The project also demonstrates the benefits of socialising. Researching can be lonely, particularly when you are working in a niche area. NRC Cambridge and CSail residents greet each other like friends, not just colleagues.

Such camaraderie produces a terrific feeling that something innovative is being developed.

Nokia extends mobile search service

www.computing.co.uk/2157370