Nokia Bell Labs announces it is supporting IHES

Press release – 14 December 2017

Nokia Bell Labs has become a major donor to Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques. This partnership for excellence in the field of mathematics will promote interactions between the two communities. It illustrates Nokia’s commitment to supporting academic research and its wish to make stronger connections between academic and applied research.

This partnership for excellence in mathematics is based on a support fund being granted to the Institute. Specifically, it will enable scientific visitors from all over the world to come and contribute their expertise to the Institute’s teams of researchers and professors and to the teams at Nokia Bell Labs, so that they can work together on fundamental research projects.

Dedicated to mathematics, theoretical physics and the sciences at the interface with these disciplines, IHES has constantly promoted unfettered, curiosity-driven research since 1958. The researchers invited onto this program will be selected by the Institute’s Scientific Council and they will benefit from a community environment that is conducive to significant progress in fundamental research areas.

With this partnership, Nokia Bell Labs France, the second advanced research laboratory at Nokia Bell Labs, is confirming its wish to support excellence in academic research and the need to further develop interactions among different scientific communities to accelerate innovation.

“Nokia Bell Labs’ power to innovate needs to be enriched by innovation ecosystems. This support fund associates Nokia with the Institute’s academic excellence and its international influence, which contributes to reinforcing the very strong links we have with academic research” says Jean-Luc Beylat, the President of Nokia Bell Labs France.

Over the past few years, IHES has been developing its links with high-technology companies, and this new partnership confirms the important role that mathematics and theoretical physics play in this sector.

“If we want to prepare the future, it’s crucial that we continue to promote fundamental research. The Institute welcomes links with the corporate world and the support from Nokia Bell Labs is a demonstration of the continuum between fundamental and applied research” explains Marwan Lahoud, the IHES Chairman.

“We share with Nokia Bell Labs the strong belief that research is most productive when it is unfettered. At a time when the Institute is carrying out an ambitious program of scientific development, their generous gift reinforces our independence and enables us to remain at the avant-garde of science” adds Emmanuel Ullmo, the Director of IHES.

About Nokia Bell Labs
Nokia Bell Labs is the world-renowned industrial research arm of Nokia. Over its 90-year history, Bell Labs has invented many of the foundational technologies that underpin information and communications networks and all digital devices and systems. This research has resulted in 8 Nobel Prizes, two Turing Awards, three Japan Prizes, a plethora of National Medals of Science and Engineering, as well as an Oscar, two Grammy’s and an Emmy award for technical innovation. Nokia Bell Labs continues to conduct disruptive research focused on solving the challenges of the new digital era, defined by the contextual connection and interaction of everything and everyone.

About Nokia
We create the technology to connect the world. Powered by the research and innovation of Nokia Bell Labs, we serve communications service providers, governments, large enterprises and consumers, with the industry’s most complete, end-to-end portfolio of products, services and licensing.
From the enabling infrastructure for 5G and the Internet of Things, to emerging applications in virtual reality and digital health, we are shaping the future of technology to transform the human experience.

IHES press contact: Marie Caillat – caillat@ihes.fr / +33 1 60 92 66 67
Nokia Bell Labs press contact: Soizick Lamandé d’Aloia – soizick.lamande@nokia.com / +33 6 07 39 65 12