HP funds UK IT research

The universities of Bath, Bristol, Leeds and Edinburgh are included on a list of 34 international institutions which the firm's central research arm, HP Labs, will work with on strategic joint research projects.

Able to receive up to $100,000 (£53,700), the universities and HP Labs will identify the next innovations to hit the computing world, focusing on developments such as dynamic cloud services, content transformation, intelligent infrastructure and sustainability.

The collaboration will work with individual professors from the institutions, including Dr Ming Ronnier Luo from the University of Leeds, Dr John Philip Collomosse and Dr Guy McCusker of the University of Bath, Dr Walterio W Mayol-Cuevas and Dr Robert M Richardson from the University of Bristol and the University of Edinburgh's Dr Alan Bundy.

Prith Banerjee, Senior Vice President of Research at HP and director of HP Labs, commented: "The professors' deep technical expertise, HP Labs researchers’ domain and industry knowledge, and governments' abilities to fund innovative research will come together to address the world’s most complex IT challenges.

Earlier this month, the BBC reported that BT is examining ways to introduce more life-like features to its networks to allow them to self-regulate and repair faults autonomously.