Bell Labs centre could be a 'magnet' for research

Mr Louis Manzione's small, rather drab, office in Trinity College Dublin doesn't strike the casual observer as a nerve centre capable of driving forward the Republic's research agenda.

But the executive director of Bell Labs' €69 million laboratory in Dublin is laying foundations for what he believes will become a magnet for research and development investment in the State.

"This is only the third country where Lucent has set up a research and development hub, the others being New Jersey in the US and China," says Mr Manzione.

Lucent's decision in August to set up its second major overseas research laboratory in Dublin generated huge media interest and caught the eye of the international research community.

Bell Labs, the research division of Lucent Technologies, is one of a handful of world-reknowned privately-owned laboratories.

"I think our core strength is that research activities are driven from our own pool of researchers, from the bottom upwards rather than from the top down," says Mr Manzione.

The recruitment process for Bell Labs Ireland is only just getting underway following confirmation this week from the EU that the State investment in the research project does not break State aid rules. But already five people have been recruited to staff the new centre, which will be housed at Lucent's existing Blanchardstown site.

"We will seed the centre with about four to five people from the US but the rest will probably come from Ireland and the continent," says Mr Manzione, who indicates that the availability of talented researchers was one of the reasons that Lucent chose Ireland as the site for Bell Labs.

Bell Labs' Blanchardstown centre will cost €43 million to set up and employ about 40 research scientists and engineers. It will conduct long range and applied research into technologies that will help Lucent to manufacture its range of telecoms products.

Developing new ways to do things in the supply chain is important for Lucent because the barriers to entry in the telecoms equipment industry are much lower than before. We don't own all levels of the supply chain anymore, says Mr Manzione.

Bell Labs' focus on research into manufacturing technologies will also go some way to reaffirm Ireland's commitment to the manufacturing sector, which has been hit hard recently as low-skilled jobs migrate abroad.

In fact, Bell Labs' new centre in Blanchardstown will form just one element of its partnership with the Government. Perhaps the key reason Ireland won the investment is that the university sector is open to collaborating with Lucent on the project.

Nine Irish research institutions in total, including all seven universities across the State, will partner with Bell Labs on joint research activities. This will involve researchers at all levels in these institutions working with the private sector and in some instances travelling to the US to work on various projects.

"There has been an eagerness to work with us from the university sector that you just don't see in many other places, even in the US," says Mr Manzione.

Collaborations between public and private institutions are becoming increasingly important as sectors converge and there is a need for more interdisciplinary research. Lucent can't employ experts in every field, he adds.

Similarly, Irish universities can only specialise in a few areas so whereas Trinity College has expertise in lasers, the National Microelectronics Research Institute may be required for its expertise in the area of photonics.

Science Foundation Ireland and IDA Ireland will support up to 80 researchers at the new research centre and Bell Labs is confident its involvement will encourage other research here.

It has also signed agreements with the colleges involved in the collaborative project to enable them to commercialise research that they develop themselves.

"I measure success in research as making a difference," says Mr Manzione. "The difference will be different for universities and for Bell Labs. For Lucent we want to develop new innovations so we can make our products better and more competitive. The universities will want to influence how people do things in Ireland."