Open & Collaborative Innovation at XRCE
Xerox Research Centre Europe pursues a policy of open innovation and collaborates with the wider European scientific community on a variety of R&D projects. We look for various opportunities to co-create and co-operate and below is a short list of XRCE Open & Collaborative Innovation activities across the world.
Customer Led Innovation
Customer Led Innovation (CLI) is all about sharing customer knowledge with the goal of accelerating the pace of bringing new technologies to the marketplace. The CLI team establishes contacts between researchers / engineers and customers. Researchers frequently seek opportunities to work directly with customers and we routinely deploy ethnographic methods to learn about customer needs and pain points. Today the customer is also viewed as a partner in innovation and we encourage “dreaming with customers” about what the future can be like: "We bring our customers' dreams to life".
For more information contact Patrick Mazeau, manager Customer Led Innovation.
Visiting Scientists
XRCE has had a steady stream of visiting scientists since its creation in 1993. Extended visits of well established researchers provide a clear benefit to the research centre and can be the basis for long-term scientific collaboration. Visiting scientists often deliver a series of topical seminars and interact closely and share their knowledge and experiences with XRCE scientists.
Amongst numerous past visitors have been: Andrew McCallum, associate professor Department of Computer Science , University of Massachusetts Amherst, Pascale Trompette from the CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research), Alexei Gaivoronski from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Michel Simard from the University of Montreal and Francois Fouss, from the Faculty of Economical, Social and Political Sciences (ESPO) in Belgium.
Doctoral Students and CIFRE students
XRCE has a program for doctoral students and ‘CIFRE’ students. ‘CIFRE’ PhDs unite three partners in a single research project: a young PhD student, a research laboratory and an enterprise. The student, who is employed by the company on either a permanent contract or a three-year contract, splits his or her time between the enterprise and the laboratory.
Sponsorships
Since the University Affairs Committee grant program started more than 20 years ago, Xerox has provided over $16 million for more than 300 research projects across a range of technical disciplines. Please contact us for information on past XRCE projects granted by the Xerox University Affairs Committee.
XRCE itself supports a small number of scientific conferences relevant to the centre's areas of research. For example XRCE was the first industrial partner to sponsor the ACM Symposium on Document Engineering, when this annnual academic conference started in 2001 and has been a sponsor ever since. Examples of other conferences we regulalry sponsor are ACL, EACL, CoLing.
Xerox Innovation Hub India
Established in January 2009, and located in Chennai, India, the Xerox India Innovation Hub is the newest addition to the Xerox Innovation Group. Open and Collaborative Innovation is at the core of how research is conducted at the hub, which will bring together scientists and engineers from across Xerox with leading academic institutions, research labs, and industry partners in India.
XRCE Seminars
XRCE organises public seminars on a regular basis which you are welcome to attend. These seminars which, are primarily technical, are an occasion to exchange with researchers from various backgrounds and to broaden one's scientific expertise. You can subscribe to our seminar RSS Feed for dates, speakers and topics.