Microsoft plans joint research center with French gov't

PARIS -- Microsoft plans to open a research center in France in conjunction with a French government research organization. An announcement could be made as early as Tuesday afternoon during a visit to Paris by Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer.

The company announced plans in February to develop a network of research centers in partnership with public institutions across Europe. The first center, at the University of Trento in Italy, will focus on computational tools for biological research. The company is discussing the creation of further centers with research organizations in France, Germany and the U.K., it said at the time.

Those discussions appear to be reaching fruition in France, where the company is planning the creation of a joint research center with INRIA, the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control, according to sources at the company and at the institute.

"We can confirm that INRIA and Microsoft are discussing the creation of a joint research laboratory," a Microsoft spokeswoman said Thursday.

The signature of a memorandum of understanding between Microsoft and INRIA could be announced Tuesday, according to sources familiar with the matter. Microsoft CEO Ballmer, the French Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industry, Thierry Breton, and the French Minister of Research, François d'Aubert, will cross paths at a number of press conferences that day.

The deal will lead to the opening of a research lab specializing in IT security and scientific computing within four to six months, according to a report in the French newspaper Les Echos on Thursday. A spokesman for INRIA directed questions to the Ministry of Research. Staff there were unavailable for comment.

Some researchers at INRIA are concerned about the impact an alliance with Microsoft will have on their ability to release their work under open-source software licenses, according to the newspaper.

The organization's researchers have contributed to the development of a number of open-source software projects, including the Jonas application server, a Java message server called Joram, and a compiler for the Eiffel programming language.

Who will own the fruits of joint research between Microsoft and INRIA is still undecided, however: negotiations over contracts and matters of intellectual property are still continuing, according to a source familiar with the matter.

INRIA has around 2,700 researchers in six centers across France. About 80 percent of INRIA's annual budget of €135 million ($176 million) is paid by the French government; the other 20 percent comes from industry.

Microsoft's research division employs 700, and operates three research labs in the U.S., one in Beijing and one in Cambridge, England. The company also opened a lab in Bangalore, India, in January.

(Scarlet Pruitt in London and James Niccolai in Paris contributed to this report.)