IBM decides future's in Lithuania

  • 2010-05-12
  • From wire reports

VILNIUS - 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, reports news agency LETA. The document was signed by Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius and Reeves Thomas, IBM’s global vice president for research and intellectual property licensing. The agreement, regarding the largest (it is hoped) IT project in the history of Lithuania is expected to be signed within the current half year.

The future center will conduct research in IBM’s strategic 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 in the center.

“A 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,” proclaimed Kubilius. “It is a concrete step towards our ambition to become a regional innovations center by 2020,” said Minister of Economy Dainius Kreivys. According to the minister, the foundation of a joint research center will keep Lithuania’s researchers from leaving the country and provide an opportunity to work in 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 exceeding by several times 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 a fire.

Kubilius and Kreivys were on a working visit to the US; the major aim of the trip was to attract investments to Lithuania’s high-tech sector.