| [ MIT ] in KIDS 글 쓴 이(By): cycho (멋진척) 날 짜 (Date): 1999년 11월 10일 수요일 오전 01시 39분 08초 제 목(Title): [EEtimes]MIT and Cambridge venture will. MIT and Cambridge venture will encourage entrepreneurs By Peter Clarke, EE Times Nov 8, 1999 (12:34 PM) URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG19991108S0093 CAMBRIDGE, England � The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has formed a transatlantic joint venture with the University of Cambridge intended to help the U.K. institution increase the number of commercial spin-offs to exploit its scientific and technology research. The venture, known as the Cambridge-MIT Institute, will be supported by about $110 million over the next five years from the U.K. government with a further $25 million due to be raised from private industry, the two universities said. The venture is expected to have a broad scope ranging from biological sciences to software, with a focus on the intersection of engineering and management. The Institute's function will be to undertake research and education to improve U.K. productivity and competitiveness; to develop research programs to improve technology; to stimulate research spin-offs; to bring MIT's business executive programs to the United Kingdom; and to develop common courses in science, technology, engineering and management for students. As part of the partnership some of the students from the two universities will spend time on exchange visits. "The collaboration of Cambridge and MIT is a momentous one for the future of entrepreneurship in Britain as a whole," said Sir Alec Broers, vice chancellor of Cambridge University. "Research universities of the calibre of Cambridge and MIT are substantial engines of economic growth, and these long term strategic global partnerships are the future of higher education," Broers said. Charles Vest, president of MIT, said, "The opportunity to join forces with the University of Cambridge to advance knowledge and educate leaders for the new global society is tremendously exciting. We believe that the synergies of Cambridge and MIT will present unparalleled opportunities for education and research and will serve to establish bold new university-industry linkages and create new cultures of entrepreneurism." The move was welcomed by a number of business leaders, including Robin Saxby, chief executive of ARM Holdings plc. ARM, which licenses RISC processor cores, is a successful spin-off founded in 1990 in Cambridge, England, by parties with ties to computer science research at Cambridge University. "We are excited by this imaginative move, which we expect will create many high growth technology companies similar to our own," Saxby said. Chris Gent, the chief executive of mobile telephone service operator Vodafone AirTouch,commended the investment in the venture, saying, "MIT has a strong track record for transfer of technology and spinning off companies, expertise we have traditionally lacked in the U.K. It is far-sighted of the government to provide funding for such a forward-looking initiative." The U.K. government is in the process of taking a number of steps to try and encourage entrepreneurship and IT skills in this country. Saxby said he has been talking with government and encouraging the lifting of taxation thresholds to encourage more startup companies to reward staff with stock options. -- Chuck Choongyeun Cho email: cycho@mit.edu |