Simula Research Laboratory (also known as Simula) is a Norwegian non-profit research organisation located in Oslo, Norway.
Simula was founded in 2001 by the Norwegian government to conduct fundamental, long-term research within information and communication technology (ICT). Simula's research is concentrated on five areas: communication systems, scientific computing, software engineering, cybersecurity, and machine learning.
In addition to conducting research at a high international level, Simula works to apply research in both industry and the public sector, and to educate graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in collaboration with partner universities, Norwegian and international.
As of 2020, the organisation includes six subsidiaries, employing over 155 employees from more than 35 countries. Through the Simula Garage (Norwegian: Gründergarasjen), Simula is also an incubator for entrepreneurs working in early-stage ICT-related startups.
Organization
Ownership
Simula Research Laboratory is registered as a limited company owned by the state and managed by the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research. It is governed by a board of directors appointed by the owner. The board appoints a managing director (CEO), who, in turn, decides how Simula should operate daily. Professor Aslak Tveito has led Simula since 2002.
Simula companies
Since the establishment of Simula Research Laboratory in 2001, several subsidiaries have been created to organise Simula's activities in research, education and innovation. The group currently comprises six companies, spread over three locations in Norway. These companies are
Simula Research Laboratory, established in 2001 and fully owned by the state, managed by the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research. Simula is led by Professor Aslak Tveito. Simula Research Laboratory is currently located at Fornebu, Bærum, Norway, and will relocate to downtown Oslo in the fall of 2021. Simula UiB was jointly established in 2016 by Simula Research Laboratory and the University of Bergen (UiB). The center is led by Professor Carlos Cid and is located in downtown Bergen, Norway. Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering (SimulaMet) was jointly established by Simula Research Laboratory and Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet) in 2018. The center is led by Olav Lysne and is located at OsloMet's campus in downtown Oslo, Norway. The Simula School of Research and Innovation (SSRI) organises Simula's educational activities. SSRI is jointly owned by Simula, Equinor, the Municipality of Bærum, and Telenor. SSRI is led by Marianne Aasen and is co-located with Simula Research Laboratory at Fornebu. Simula's innovation and applied research activities are organised by its two wholly owned subsidiaries: Simula Innovation (led by Ottar Hovind) and Simula Consulting (led by Valeriya Naumova). The Simula Garage] (Norwegian: "Gründergarasjen"), an incubator for entrepreneurs working on early-stage ICT-related startups, has two locations: one at Fornebu and one in downtown Oslo, in collaboration with Oslo Metropolitan University.
Funding
Simula is funded from several different sources. About 35% of Simula's funding is allocated in the form of basic funding and long-term projects from the Norwegian government, in particular from the Ministries of Education and Research, Local Government and Modernisation, Transport, and Justice and Public Security. The remaining 65% of funding is secured from external sources, mainly research grants from the European Union and the Research Council of Norway.
Name
Simula Research Laboratory is named after the programming language Simula, which was developed by the Norwegian scientists Kristen Nygaard and Ole-Johan Dahl. Both men received the A. M. Turing Award in 2001 and the IEEE John von Neumann Medal in 2002 for their contribution to the development of object-oriented programming.
Simula was named after the language to honour the outstanding scientific achievement of Nygaard and Dahl, and to encourage research that meets the highest standards of quality.
Activities
Simula's main objective is to conduct basic and applied research and provide education in select areas of information and communications technology (ICT), thereby contributing to innovation in society.
Research
Simula conducts long-term, fundamental research in the following five fields: communication systems, scientific computing, software engineering, machine intelligence and cybersecurity. The research is focused on core challenges that combine technological development, with utility for industry and society overall.