Alan Baldwin / Head of Open Innovation, Samsung R&D Institute UK

Leonardo Da-Vinci, Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Hedy Lamarr, George Stephenson, Karl Benz, Ada Lovelace, Stephen Hawking, Marie Curie, Tim Berners-Lee – the list of world renowned scientists and inventors to have come from Europe is incredibly long, and continues to grow, with every generation. 

For much of the last 600 years Europe has been at the vanguard of global industrial and scientific advancement, though it is probably true to say now that European science and technology is not quite the “dominating” global force it once was. The reason for this is due to the rise of both the US and Asian technology industries in recent decades. However, even considering the rise of technology in other regions, it is still true that innovation in Europe is very much alive and kicking; it is just that the European spotlight is now shared more evenly.

With Europe having nearly 750 Million people, spread across 44 countries, and speaking more than 24 official languages (with many more spoken unofficially!) the challenge for the Samsung Research Institute UK Open Innovation group is finding the next great inventors and scientists from all corners of the continent for the various Samsung business units to collaborate with.

It sometimes seems like an almost impossible task to pick through thousands of universities, research institutes, projects, research papers, companies and start-ups to find the hidden “gems” that match our business unit’s requirements. Our team handles the difficult task of finding promising leads across multiple languages and countries with a combination of skill, hard work and above all a great deal of patience.

The UK based Open Innovation group is composed of several smaller teams, each one focussed on supporting a particular Samsung business unit. Since every one of those business units has its own goals, timescales, roadmaps, business models and technology focus areas, our staff are always working closely with their Korean based counterpart teams to meet those demands. However, within the larger OI group, we are also constantly sharing information, leads, and status updates to prevent un-needed repetition of meetings on a local level, and build a stronger European network for Samsung innovation.

The Samsung Research OI team are always looking for tech companies that solve “tomorrow’s problems”, so that Samsung Research can invest in companies that could help bring future products and services to market. Our team also funds top academics and research labs in the region. In the past, we have worked with partners on data science problems, machine learning, AI, robotics, sensor technologies and knowledge systems to mention a few. We are always interested in finding new investment opportunities, and identifying companies with unique technologies that we can help bring to market.

The SAIT team actively senses for future technologies in Europe; targeting excellent industry, universities, research institutes, ventures and spinouts for collaborative frontier R&D and technology transfer projects. As part of our 'open innovation' activities, we engage experts internationally to build collaborative research relationships via a number of means, e.g., strategic research partnership (multi-year, multi-million dollars of funding), bilateral R&D projects and an annual Global Research Outreach (GRO) program. Our mission is to provide a bridge between Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology and the best R&D in Europe to ensure a bright future of Samsung and the rest of the World.

The Mobile team’s primary goal is to source the latest and most unique technologies in Europe to differentiate Samsung Mobile division’s products. This typically involves approaching start-ups and other companies that own proprietary technology for licensing deals. The team primarily focuses on relatively mature technologies to align with upcoming mobile product launches in the next 1-2 years. In the past, some popular technology themes have included a range of hardware and software technologies such as camera, audio and health solutions, to pick a few. The mobile team also run a scheme for funding collaborative proof of concept products with Samsung Mobile division called Samsung Mobile Advance.