Bell Labs, the research arm of Lucent Technologies, will set up a research institute in Seoul.

The Seoul City Hall on Friday said Mayor Lee Myung-bak and Bell CEO Kim Jong-hoon signed a memorandum of understanding to that end.

Domestic institutes, universities and companies will help set up the new center and can later use the facilities and staff for research.

Some 30,000 researchers worldwide work for Bell, which is named after the inventor of the telephone Alexander Graham Bell.