The agreement covers cooperation between IBM and the Bulgarian government and ways to encourage industry, universities and the Bulgarian Academy of Science to work together in the field of nanoscience. In a separate commercial agreement, IBM consultants will help the Bulgarian government establish a nanotechnology research facility.

The facility wiill make use of an IBM Blue Gene supercomputer owned by the Bulgarian State Agency for Information Technology and Communications. Due to be completed next year, the Bulgarian Nanotechnology Center will occupy nearly 500 square meters of laboratory space and will support researchers and engineers working in close collaboration with Bulgarian universities.

Once the center is created, its Bulgarian government intends to conduct applied research into: microfluidics and nanofluidics, for life science applications; nanoelectronics and nanoscale sensors and actuators for use in point-of-care, environmental and security monitoring; and nanomaterials, particularly on compound semiconductor substrates.

"We have a window of opportunity right now to transform industry to become more technology intense. This will not happen automatically, but requires dedicated effort, part of which is the current agreement with IBM," said Plamen Oresharski, finance minister for Bulgaria, in a statement.

"IBM has been a leader in nanoscale science for many years and our participation in this project will support the accelerated success of the Bulgarian Nanotechnology Center. We see this type of collaboration as an emerging model for future industry-academic partnerships," said Marcelo Lema, General Manager, IBM Central and Eastern Europe, in the same statement.

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