IT department activities focus on  fast changing Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs), which often require that the necessary developments are conducted in collaboration with external partners.

As a result, collaborations and partnering with external organizations are essential channels in the department for interactions with the outside world.

In general, these collaborations do not have as objective the transfer, sharing or joint creation intellectual property.

* The openlab and the EU-funded projects are collaborative undertakings which are not not per-se a Technology Transfer activities

Components of TT through projects with Industry

Bilateral collaborations

They constitute the classical one-to-one partnering, generally for evaluating early implementations of industry solutions.

Multiparty collaborative R&D projects

CERN has developed a framework for evaluating and integrating cutting-edge technologies or services in partnership with industry, called the openlab for DataGrid Applications. The openlab brings  together industrial partners in order to jointly achieve a common objective. In that sense it is different from bilateral collaborations. The openlab does not has as objective the transfer, sharing or joint creation of intellectual property.

Other forms of collaboration

In the framework of EU-funded projects, the IT Department is involved in industry oriented activities. The most notable one is the Industry and Research Forum (IRF)