On the 14^th and 15^th of May, the CERN openlab Board of Sponsors gathered at CERN premises to review the outcomes of the first year of its fourth phase and to set new research challenges for the following years of the collaboration. This fourth phase addresses topics critical to the continued growth of the CERN scientific programme, such as cloud computing, business analytics, the next generation of hardware, and security for myriads of network devices.

Bob Jones, head of CERN openlab, conveyed Rolf Heuer's (CERN Director General) words on his behalf. Mr Heuer thanked HP, Huawei, Intel, Oracle, Siemens as partners and Yandex as associate, while he also emphasized the importance of their continued support. He reminded that the fourth phase of CERN openlab is instrumental in addressing the growing computing challenges posed by increases in LHC luminosity and energy.

During the first day, delegates from industry member companies, along with CERN management, discussed together and evaluated the results of the first year of the fourth phase. The sponsors' presentations focused on the key technological research efforts, highlighted the achievements to date, and stressed how these outcomes will be included in their commercial product range. Sverre Jarp and Alberto Di Meglio, CERN openlab CTOs, summarised the technical achievements and future plans for CERN openlab, while Fréderic Hemmer, Head of CERN IT Department, added up to the discussion the general future directions of CERN IT department. Mélissa Gaillard, CERN openlab Communications Officer, informed the partners about the current status and plans for CERN related communication topics, while she also introduced the partners to the different communication activities and tasks openlab runs. Naturally, the companies' representatives presented their views and shared their comments on the various topics. At the end of the day, a poster session took place during which the Research Fellows explained the attendants the content and goals of their projects.

On the second day, Paul Collier gave a presentation giving details about the preparation, construction and operation of the LHC (25 years) and the interesting by-products that were developed along the way. Giovanni Anelli emphasised the importance of Knowledge Transfer, both within CERN environment and between CERN and the industry, whereas Svetlomir Stavrev followed the discussion by presenting European Union's Horizon 2020 scheme - an initiative from the European Commission that aspires to bring research centres, academia and the industry closer. The Board of Sponsors 2013 ended with an extensive wrap-up of the reviews and the feedback given by the involved members.