cosbi is a joint venture between microsoft research and the university of trento. the founding agreement was signed in prague on february 2, 2005 by the minister of education, university and research (minister letizia moratti), the minister of innovation and technology (minister lucio stanca), the province of trento (gianluca salvatori, councillor of planning, research, and innovation), the university of trento (davide bassi, rector), the microsoft corporation (bill gates, president and founder). cosbi was inaugurated on december 7, 2005.