Alcatel-Lucent inks R&D MOU with South Korea

Alcatel-Lucent's Bell Labs research organization has signed a memorandum of understanding with the South Korean Ministry of Knowledge Economy's Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) to provide a framework for the two parties to cooperate in R&D projects into critical technology areas of communications.

The joint research activity is expected to focus on advanced optical communications and network applications; wireless technologies, networks and applications; and fundamental studies in the enabling sciences.

The MOU was executed by Mun-Kee Choi, president of ETRI, and Jeong Kim, president of Bell Labs in a signing ceremony in Washington D.C. attended by Lee Youn Ho, Minister of Knowledge Economy and John Sullivan, deputy secretary of commerce for the United States.

"The Ministry of Knowledge Economy is a shining, innovative model of proactive government engagement in supporting the development of a national innovation culture?one that will generate new technologies at the forefront of IT and communications," said Jeong. "We are proud to partner with the ministry's ETRI and see this as just the first step in a deep and longstanding engagement between Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs and the government of Korean and its scientists to generate fundamental innovations that will change the world around us."

"With this agreement we hope to combine Bell Labs unmatched fundamental research expertise with ETRI's proven capabilities in developing applications and technologies," said Mun-kee. "The combination of these two powerful institutions should make it possible to innovate state-of-the-art IT and communications infrastructure and help Korea further its goal of world-class leadership in IT technologies."