Not content at being the jewel in Microsoft"s global research crown, the Cambridge based European headquarters is gunning for further international kudos.
Managing director Andrew Herbert is a seasoned entrepreneur in his own right and is set to preside over a fresh gust of progress.
Herbert says: "We"re out to find some stars and it"s a standards equation. We want really superb people able to work on research that genuinely pushes back the frontiers.
"We are currently scouting around to assess what those new areas might be. Within the lab currently we don"t have anyone with a strong focus on applications, for example.
"We are technology driven from the bottom up. We have one or two people in the field here but we can strengthen our hand. The key hiring decision remains getting people of the right calibre. If someone seriously talented, say in the field of user interface, walked by our door we would take them on in a new area."