Information and Communication Technology
Information Communications Technology or ICT refers to the integration of Information Technology and telecommunications which enable users to create, access, store, transmit and manipulate information. It includes hardware as well as software and communications protocols and also encompasses the convergence of computing, networking, broadcasting and media communications.
Lancaster University's InfoLab21 houses the School of Computing and Communications, internationally recognised for its Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) based research, and the Knowledge Business Centre, a facility offering co-location space and structured support services to help businesses collaborate with and benefit from the building’s specialist research activities.
Collaborative research and consultancy
Over 80 full-time academic and research staff and over 100 research students have been attracted to InfoLab21 from all over the world. We work in partnership across public, private and academic sectors to deliver high quality collaborative and contract research.
Expertise in the School of Computing and Communications at InfoLab21 is organised around 5 major themes:
- Communications and networking
- Computer systems
- Intelligent systems
- Software engineering
- Human-computer interaction
This expertise is complemented by ICT support programmes for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) which can offer consultancy in areas such as proof of concept and prototype development, software development, mobile and wireless applications development, technologies, ICT strategies, audits and infrastructure review, research into new technologies, web applications development and ICT resources optimisation.
Award Winning Co-location Building
InfoLab21 provides ICT businesses with an ideal location, award winning facilities, access to support and training and the ability to join our local, regional, national and international ICT communities. Our resident businesses range from university spin-out companies to international companies.
Benefits of Collaboration
- Access unique knowledge and technologies
- Access InfoLab21’s award winning facilities
- Gain extra resources through student projects and placements
- Tap into our business collaboration networks
- Work with us to develop new products and processes
- Access to events, conferences, technology demos and specialist technical workshops
Working in Partnership
Since its opening, InfoLab21 has been successful in securing and delivering 7 European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) revenue projects with a combined grant value of £10M and has assisted over 1,000 companies. Our partners include over 600 Northwest SMEs plus global organisations such as Microsoft, BT Labs, Cisco, NEC, Panasonic, Nokia, Ford, BAE Systems, Panasonic, NDS, Simoc, ATG, Intel and Orange.
We also work as part of a wider multidisciplinary team across Science and Technology at Lancaster and can link in with experts in Advanced Manufacturing, Energy, Environment, Health and Human Development, Mathematics and Statistics, Quantum Technology and Security to complement ICT expertise.
Partnership Examples
- Applications software technologies for protecting children in online social networks
- The Wray Broadband Project – bringing broadband to rural and remote areas
- Dynamically evolving systems - landmark recognition by mobile robots in unknown environments
- Firefly project - a new concept in display technology called Emergent Displays
- Hermes - digital office door displays supporting remote messaging to place, i.e. instead of a user remotely sending a message to a particular person
- Proof of concept dashboard to enable a business intelligence company to present large data sets in a variety of different ways for their large commercial clients
- Bespoke tool to produce Flash-based virtual 3D product models for an online shop
