Deutche Telecom has recently established its central research and development unit in connection with the Technical University of Berlin.

In 2005, Deutsche Telekom established its central research and development unit called T-Labs (Telekom Laboratories) at the campus of Technische Universität Berlin. The mission was to refocus Deutsche Telekom’s research and development activities by promoting interaction between science and enterprise through the establishment of a novel lab.

Today, more than 300 experts and researchers within telecommunication, design and ethnography work in the labs, among them: 125 Deutsche Telekom employees, 65 postdoctoral staff and around 80 postgraduates, research students and students from all over the world. Furthermore, 700 other experts are hired on an ad-hoc basis for short periods at a time. And most projects involve close collaboration with partner universities, international research establishments and business in order to engineer innovative solutions for simpler, faster and better communications. In 2006, T-labs established its first subsidiary institute at the Ben-Gurion University in Israel.

Organizationally, T-labs belongs to Deutsche Telekom, but is simultaneously a scientific institute organized under private law and associated with the university.

The innovations that Deutsche Telekom is developing by interacting closely with experts, researchers and students at the lab are superior to the innovations the company had previously been able to develop at its own research facilities.

Source: FORA, 2009

For more details on this case, contact FORA at FORA@newnatureofinnovation.org.