This article discusses how the United States-based company HP Labs seeks technology from around the world to help it achieve the technologies of the future. The company is embracing the world of “open innovation” – the idea that companies should make wider use of ideas and technologies that come from other sources, and allow their own technologies and ideas to be adopted by others – to help them develop the next-generation smart printers, optical chips, wireless nano-sensors and more. HP’s Innovation Research Program is now in its fourth year of giving grants of US$50,000 to $75,000 to university researchers. Last year the company gave 65 grants to 49 institutions in 14 countries. According to Rich Friedrich, director of Open Innovation Office at HP Labs, “[T]his is not innovation by doing contract research. This really [sic] about bottom-up ideas and inspiration and trying to understand how to apply those.” Over the history of the program, HP researchers and grant recipients have coauthored about 200 journal papers and at least 21 invention disclosures – the first step toward securing a patent – have been filed. “At some point I do expect some of these to have influence and impact on our products,” Friedrich says. “But we’re really engaged in things that go beyond the product road map. The goal is for us to push the envelope enough that we uncover the boundaries of what’s possible. Some people might consider that a failure. I consider it the edge of knowledge.” The article can be viewed online at the link below.
http://www.technologyreview.com/business/32260/