When the UK Chancellor, Gordon Brown, launched a consultation with business, research foundations and the scientific community on the framework for a ten-year strategy for the UK’s investment in science and engineering, ABB was among the first companies to offer its support.
One of the key elements the government has identified is “greater collaboration between universities and business to provide a sharper focus for research and an impetus to innovation and productivity growth”. That is exactly what ABB is doing through its collaborative work with around 70 of the world’s leading technology institutes, including Cambridge University and Imperial College London in the UK.
ABB has always acknowledged the importance of building partnerships with universities to create an outward-looking network of innovators. No technology company, however inventive or well resourced, can do it alone.
This combination of core research expertise and co-operation with other institutes is helping us achieve a number of breakthroughs in key areas of corporate research.
At Imperial College, for example, we are sponsoring projects in asset management, advanced process control and power system control. This includes a three-year project addressing the use of power electronics for control of Facts (Flexible AC Transmission Systems), to improve transient performance of power systems.
The need for a new framework for R&D management between industrial and academic partners was emphasised by Markus Bayegan, ABB’s Chief Technology Officer, speaking at the recent Cambridge University Horizon R&D Management conference.
He said: “Developing relationships with the leading research universities in the US, Europe and Asia is a key element in our global R&D strategy. The mutual exchange of ideas and information is proving invaluable in helping to encourage some of the best young researchers in the world as well as giving ABB access to the latest developments in emerging technologies”.
Continuous technological development provides the foundation for ABB’s future growth and profitability. It enables us to keep our products and systems competitive and to develop innovative solutions that deliver real customer value.
That’s why we invest around 5% of revenues in R&D and employ some 6,000 scientists and technologists at corporate research centres and laboratories around the world.