Newcastle University

Red Hat, Inc. - the world's leading provider of open source solutions - is teaming up with Newcastle University to fund a new research centre that will lead the way in emerging technologies such as grid and cloud computing, virtualisation and middleware technology.

Building on a long-term successful collaboration between Red Hat and Newcastle University, the new Red Hat Centre will undertake collaborative research and initially employ two researchers with a view to expand the team within the next few years.

Students are also expected to benefit from Red Hat-sponsored PhD scholarships, MSc placements and undergraduate project support.

Paul Watson, Professor at Newcastle’s School of Computing Science and Director of the North East Regional e-Science Centre, said: “This partnership with Red Hat acknowledges the quality of research at our university and opens up numerous opportunities for Newcastle University and the wider community.

“We will be able to tap into funded research tied to real product development and market demands.

“Furthermore, we expect there to be a positive impact on the regional digital economy through inward investment, job opportunities and building a critical mass of expertise in Newcastle.”

The new Centre builds on more than two decades of research into distributed systems at the School of Computing Science at Newcastle University.

Past projects include Professor Santosh Shrivastava’s work on the Arjuna transaction monitor, a technology which was ultimately acquired by JBoss in 2005.

The School has also contributed to the internationally-acclaimed work on grid and cloud computing carried out by the North East Regional e-Science Centre.

Dr. Mark Little, chief technologist, Middleware, at Red Hat added: "Red Hat sees collaboration with academic institutions as a great way to nurture community relations and long-term research into future technologies.

"Newcastle University, with its tradition of producing top-flight researchers and excellent work in areas of immediate relevance to Red Hat, such as fault tolerance, security and cloud computing, presented a clear choice for partnering to establish the Centre.

"We look forward to fostering a close and long-standing partnership with the University over the years to come."