Microsoft Partners With Imperial

The Imperial College Business School has been selected as the lead academic partner for Microsoft's Innovation Outreach Programme (IOP), following an agreement which came to light during a Global Investment Conference held by the Prime Minister. The role will make Imperial's innovation, management, technology and engineering qualities available to the IOP, of which a range of multinational companies are members.

The agreement will grant Imperial funding and research opportunities for and with other IOP members. Imperial's role will be to provide business focused research and engineering expertise for technical development and proof-of-concepts. The opportunity also allows members of the IOP to work alongside Imperial Innovations, which is a leading commercialisation and investment company involved with testing and launching business projects, partly owned by Imperial College.

Microsoft's IOP was established in 2009 and is mostly comprised of highly reputable companies whose innovation executives regularly meet to discuss challenges in product and service development and how they may be overcome in order to meet today's standards and expectations competitively. Microsoft has expanded the IOP into Europe and added ten companies. The Business School was chosen to provide academic support for both American and European ventures.

Microsoft's Technical Strategy & Innovation Chief of Operations, Michael Steep, commented that ''Imperial is a perfect fit for the IOP and its global members. It offers the latest research and practice on business model and process innovation, alongside an impressive track record of spinning out successful companies.'' He continued to add that ''the University combines world class expertise in science, engineering and medicine with a top business school for innovation. Imperial has a truly entrepreneurial culture which fits well with the IOP so we're really pleased to announce this partnership to the IOP members.''

Imperial will start their role by designing and performing research for the IOP's conference at Microsoft's US headquarters in March and June, where they will discuss improving innovation processes with other corporate members.

Professor David Gann, head of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship research group at the Business School, commented that Imperial ''will bring together experts from a range of industries and share what is learnt through applied, market-facing research for the members'' and that the college is ''very pleased to be a central part of this strong network.'' Describing the IOP, he mentioned: ''It's an exceptional group of companies. They lead by continual - sometimes radical - product or service improvement. The IOP is a new model we hope will let corporations open their R&D departments to create new, exciting and successful ventures with other IOP partners.''

Imperial's commitment to the role raises awareness and acknowledgement of their internationally outstanding education and research. Lord Mandelson, the UK Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills said that: ''Imperial College is offering a service that no one else in the world can provide: specialist expertise, reliably connected across disciplines, linked directly to what the market requires. This country's investment in knowledge, skills development and meaningful research means our universities set the bar for excellence that others must try to beat.''

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