Bangalore: Australia's premier ICT research organization NICTA and business consulting and technology services firm, Infosys Ltd, signed a joint research collaboration agreement to "tackle the hard technology problems facing businesses today". 

Potential outcomes of the collaboration could see ageing technology systems readily modernized for the cloud, a joint statement said today. Logistics departments could find faster, greener transport routes, it said. 

'Agile' techniques previously used for software development could be adapted to accelerate the definition and solution of business challenges. 

"Innovation across borders is essential to accelerate the pace of world prosperity," said N R Narayana Murthy, co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of Infosys. 

Murthy, member of NICTA's International Business Advisory Group (IBAG) since 2005, added: "Having watched NICTA grow from start to one of the world's leading research organizations, I expect this to be a formidable partnership." 

The programme is intended to include joint research, PhD student internship and professional exchange programmes, as well as commercialization of relevant intellectual property over the next five years, the statement said. 

NICTA CEO Hugh Durrant-Whyte said: "This collaboration will provide Infosys with access to NICTA's world-class researchers and access to real world technology problems and a path to impact." 

Platformisation research includes the development of new techniques to harvest software architectures, functions and processes from existing large code bases to speed up the development of new systems, especially for cloud based platforms, according to the statement. 

NICTA (National ICT Australia Ltd) is Australia's information and communications technology research centre of excellence. NICTA develops technologies that generate economic, social and environmental benefits for Australia, it said.

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