NewsStrategy

Japan-based IT and network technologies provider NEC is reorganizing its Central Research Laboratories to focus on cloud computing and smart energy and strengthen its global research and development (R&D) capabilities.

NEC Central Research Laboratories will allocate 95% of its annual R&D budget to the newly established "Cloud Research Group" and "Green Innovation Research Group." Most of the teams within NEC's Central Research Laboratories have been assigned to these two research groups. 

These two new research groups will mainly conduct R&D in seven fields: big data, networking, real-world data and processing, security, battery/energy management, green ICT and productivity enhancement/process improvement.

In addition, to strengthening its "Global Open Innovation," NEC Central Research Laboratories will accelerate its joint research projects with institutions throughout the world, such as the Open Networking Research Center in California and SRM University in Chennai, India. Through this initiative, NEC will commit up to 50% of its research staff to international projects by FY2017, compared with 30% in FY2011. 

NEC also established the "C&C (Computer and Communications) Innovation Initiative" to increase new business development at NEC's Central Research Laboratories. The C&C Innovation Initiative will be responsible for communication between customers and researchers to identify potential customer needs.

"This reorganization enables us to contribute to NEC's core business more directly, and deliver innovative products well-tailored to our customer's needs," said Katsumi Emura, associate senior vice president, NEC and the head of NEC's Central Research Laboratories.