IBM Invests $175 Million into Ontario R&D Centre

By: Rob Lewis

The Governments of Canada and Ontario, with IBM and a consortium of seven universities led by the University of Toronto and Western University, today announced they are collaborating to establish a new, Ontario-based $210 million dollar research and development initiative.

The initiative is expected to create 145 new highly skilled jobs in Ontario. IBM will invest up to $175 million through December 2014 in the project, forming the IBM Canada Research and Development Centre to serve as a foundation for the research initiative.

The Government of Ontario is investing $15 million towards the creation of this Centre; ensuring that the skills needed for developing future information and communications technology products and services are fostered in Ontario, new and existing Ontario companies are leaders in their fields, and innovation efficiencies and cost-savings are created across multiple sectors.

The Government of Canada will contribute $20 million to allow a consortium of seven southern Ontario post-secondary institutions to install two high-performance IBM Blue Gene/Q supercomputers and develop a cloud computing and agile computing platform to underpin the initiative’s research collaboration. The university consortium will have access to a new Barrie-based IBM data centre once it is fully operational in the fall of 2012.

The unique virtual structure of the network will allow IBM research staff to work side-by-side with many of Canada’s world-renowned, top scientists. This collaborative model and close day-to-day interaction is expected to accelerate commercialization opportunities and strengthen Canada’s digital infrastructure. We expect to add additional partners to this world-class collaboration as the project becomes fully operational.

Reposted from Techvibes

Rob is the President of Techvibes Media and Editor in Chief of Techvibes.com.  His diverse background includes stints with International Trade Finance, Web Development, and Enterprise Software.Reposted from Techvibes Media.

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