BT ESTABLISHES NEW RESEARCH LABORATORY AT MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

BT is joining forces with some of the world's best brains to identify and develop new 'disruptive' technologies which will change the way businesses operate and how people organise their everyday lives.

A new laboratory, specialising in the creation of ideas that offer alternatives to existing business models and generate new commercial opportunities is to be opened today at the world-famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Operating within the MIT Media Lab, the "BT Disruptive Lab" represents a commitment by BT of several million pounds running over five years.

On the same day, BT is to sign an agreement with the Cambridge-MIT Institute Ltd (CMI), a DTI-backed alliance between the University of Cambridge in England and MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to create a 'technology triangle' involving BT's globally- renowned research and development facilities at Adastral Park, the University of Cambridge and MIT.

The agreement, worth £2.5 million over five years, kicks off a major initiative which seeks to create a bridge of minds across the Atlantic. The BT alliance with CMI will enable the two universities to undertake joint research and teaching projects in new IT and telecommunications technologies.

Chris Earnshaw, BT's group engineering director and chief technology officer, said: "The two events are part of BT's strategy of building a global innovation footprint which includes its own R&D sites such as Adastral Park in the UK, targeted academic investments worldwide and equity stakes in high technology companies.

"The establishment of the new laboratory in an environment which attracts the cream of scientific and technological talent from around the world will stimulate interaction between researchers, students and all branches of our business."

Research at the laboratory will focus on looking for new technologies and novel uses of existing technologies that have the power to disrupt or transform existing ways of doing business or effect rapid or radical changes within business and society.

The signing of BT's membership of the CMI will take place at Boston Harbour today aboard a virtual BT Global Challenge yacht. The virtual environment will enable dignitaries from both Cambridge, England, and Cambridge, Massachusetts, to 'come-together' on-board to sign the agreement.