working closely with the academic world

France Telecom's R&D enters into numerous research contracts with public laboratories and top ranking universities, both in France and worldwide. This enables us to use the world's best innovation and incorporate it into Orange networks and service offerings.

direct cooperation with top class universities worldwide
Partnerships with universities and academic institutes are covered by framework agreements: CNRS, INRIA, Supélec, Ecole Normale Supérieure, etc.

In 2006, the R&D division employed nearly 300 PhD. students and postdoctoral researchers. At the end of their doctorates, between one quarter and one third of doctors are usually recruited on permanent contracts within Group teams, primarily within R&D.
Furthermore, a particular effort has been made to support PhD. students so that they can be more easily integrated into professional life once they have completed their doctorate degrees (system for new thesis chapter in a partnership with the Bernard Grégory Association).

The presence of Orange Labs laboratories (on 3 continents) located close to major foreign universities also helps these exchanges.
Group researchers are in contact with twenty or so universities, including the CRIM in Montreal and Concordia University (Quebec) for validation methods, the Geneva University for network optimisation, the Lancaster University (UK) for multimedia distributed platforms, Columbia University (New York) for intelligent agents, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT Boston) MediaLab for virtual environments and the e-company, Sherbrooke University (Quebec) for distance learning, Tsinhua in Peking and the BUPT.