The award is designed to promote open collaboration between university researchers and IBM, and comes with a cash donation of $100,000 USD per year for two years, along with access to IBM research personnel. NTNU is the first Norwegian university to receive this award. The Georgia Institute of Technology, Rutgers University, and Columbia University are among the other institutions that have won the award since its creation in 2006.

Centre for Integrated Operation a target
NTNU Rector's Torbjørn Digernes accepted the OCR award on behalf of NTNU from the CEO of IBM Norway, Morten Throkildsen. Most of the award money will be channeled into NTNU's Centre for Integrated Operations, where NTNU and IBM collaborate to develop support technology for the Norwegian oil industry.

The OCR award programme is designed to bolster strategically important research effort between IBM and leading universities in computer science, engineering, mathematics, and other areas where these kinds of shared efforts lead to innovation and benefit the world at large.

Open source software
The program promotes the development of open source software, related industry standards, and greater interoperability between systems. The fruits from the collaboration between IBM and NTNU will be open - meaning that the results will be freely available, and publicly shared to maximize the opportunity for others to build on the results.

Rector Digernes said he was very pleased that the cooperative agreement signed by IBM and NTNU in December 2009 had resulted in this recognition of one of NTNU's research communities.

IBM Norway CEO Morten Thorkildsen said he was delighted that NTNU had been selected as an OCR award winner, adding that IBM's work with NTNU had already resulted in technological advancements in the oil and gas industry and other areas. IBM hopes the award contributes to further progress in technology that can be developed in co-operation with the Norwegian oil industry.