Facebook Inc signs research agreement with 17 universities

Facebook Inc has always been very strong about their research wing. This time they have announced a rather unique approach to enhance their already existing research parameteres. In an announcement made by Facebook Inc's hardware development division they haven now partnered with Harvard, Princeton and 15 other universities to allow swifter collaboration on technology research projects.

Facebook wants to enter the world of virtual reality and AI in the coming future and hence it is going to be an importatnt agreement for the future of social media giant. Last month, the company reported advertising growth limits on its network of 1.8 billion monthly active users.

In this surprise move of research partnerships between universities it will allow for collaboration on new ideas within weeks, shared Regina Dugan in a facebook post, who joined the company in April to run the new Building 8 unit.

She wrote on the Facebook post, "The SARA (Sponsored Academic Research Agreement) is designed to make it easier and faster for B8 to work with university researchers. Not in the 9-12 months that’s typically required. But within weeks."

Reuters reports suggest that participating universities will receive payment from Facebook with no clear mention of a said amount.

The Seventeen universities have already signed the SARA include California Institute of Technology - Caltech, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Rice University, UCSF, UC Berkeley, Northeastern University, Princeton University, University of Waterloo, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Arizona State University, Texas A&M University, Georgia Tech, and Virginia Tech.

Facebook is known for finding innpvative ways to generate revenue especially outside its traditional advertising model. Hope, this one does bear the fruit for them.