A NORTH-East university is strengthening its links with a multinational corporation with the signing of a new agreement later this week (Thursday, May 2).

Durham University is to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with technology giant IBM, aimed a furthering shared research, teaching and recruitment aims.

The research will focus on high performance computing, ‘Smarter Cities’, digital humanities and big data analytics.

Professor Andrew Deeks, Durham University’s Pro-Vice Chancellor (Science), said: “As a UK top five and world top 100 university, partnerships such as this MoU ensure our research is relevant to the needs of industry and has significant impact and also presents opportunities for our students to gain additional skills through engagement with multinational companies.”