After Sony Ericsson, we have another birthday happening these days. This time it’s Nokia’s corporate research unit, Nokia Research Center, which today celebrates its 20th anniversary at its global headquarters in Helsinki, Finland.
Established in 1986, the research center today employs a diverse group of 1,100 researchers located in Finland, China, Germany, Hungary, Japan and the United States. Its work has been at the core of many fundamental telecommunications milestones such as GSM standardization and development, SMS systems, 3G evolution and recently the mobile-TV technology standard DVB-H. It has also carried out instrumental research in mobile multimedia, with major contribution to Java Mobile Media API (JSR-135), M3G Mobile 3D graphics, and audio and video codecs, such as AAC and AMR-WB+. With research work encompassing diverse fields from mobile and IP networks, electronics, software and application development to artificial intelligence, Nokia Research Center is truly a house of experts. It is also a major contributor to Nokia’s patent portfolio, with approximately half of Nokia’s essential patents originating from Nokia Research Center.
In a competitive market and a fast paced technology race, Nokia Research Center has a crucial role to play to renew and reinvent Nokia. Convergence of different industries and the digitalization of experiences represent a huge potential for rich customer experiences and new business. The role of the research center is, together with Nokia’s business groups, to identify future technology opportunities and assess the best technology paths for Nokia.
Research collaboration with the industry and academic institutions has been a key element of Nokia Research Center’s success. From the beginning, Nokia Research Center has participated in the work of various industry fori and in several research programs run by national or international agencies, such as the Tekes of Finland and the European Union Framework Programs. At any given time the Nokia Research Center is involved in hundreds of individual research collaboration projects.
With a strategy to further deepen its collaboration with leading universities, Nokia Research Center announced in April 2006 the opening of a joint research facility with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), US. Established on the basis of years of close collaboration, the research carried out at the Nokia Research Center Cambridge facility will advance the vision of mobility while developing real-world applications. This ambition supports Nokia Research Center’s long-term vision of leading the development of technologies and services that merge the lines between our physical and digital lives, making digital devices and applications more intertwined with our surroundings through seamless and intuitive interaction.