Minister Lawless welcomes the successful outcome of the Irish AI Factory Antenna bid and passing major milestone towards securing a supercomputer
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From: Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science
- Published on: 13 October 2025
- Last updated on: 13 October 2025
Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science James Lawless TD has welcomed two major steps forward for Ireland’s AI capabilities and computing capacity after a successful AI Factory Antenna bid and an agreement that paves the way for the procurement of a new national supercomputer.
The Irish ‘AIF IRL-Antenna’ has been awarded €5m in European funding after an evaluation by European High Performance Computing (EuroHPC) Joint Undertaking (JU), a figure that will be matched by national funding, while the signing of a ‘Hosting Agreement’ sees a major milestone passed in the acquisition of a supercomputer.
Both projects were led by the University of Galway and the Irish Centre for High-End Computing (ICHEC).
Minister Lawless said:
"I commend ICHEC and the University of Galway for securing these landmark results. The successful AI Factory Antenna bid and Hosting Agreement mark a major leap forward for Ireland’s AI and computing capabilities.
"These breakthroughs will open doors for researchers, developers, public bodies and institutions across Ireland, providing access to cutting-edge infrastructure, expert support and European AI networks. From climate and health to transport and advanced manufacturing, this will accelerate innovation across every corner of our economy and society.
"With the AI Antenna and HPC supercomputer joining the EuroHPC family, Ireland is strengthening its place in Europe’s digital future. For Ireland, this is an important step - one that empowers Irish talent, connects us to global opportunity and ensures we’re not just participating in the next wave of innovation, we’re helping to shape it.”
The AI Factory Antenna will link directly to leading AI hubs in France and Luxembourg and has been designed with innovation stakeholders, including SMEs, public sector and researchers, in mind. It will provide access to computing infrastructure, technical support and training to help Irish innovators develop, test and scale AI models and applications.
‘AIF IRL-Antenna' will be implemented by a consortium, led by ICHEC and includes CeADAR (Ireland’s centre for AI) as well as a network of enterprise accelerators (PorterShed, Dogpatch Labs, RDI Hub, Republic of Works, Advanced Innovation in Manufacturing) and digital skills networks (Innovation Technology AtlanTec Gateway, Digital Technology Skills Ltd) as associated partners.
The signing of a ‘Hosting Agreement’ between the University of Galway and the EuroHPC JU is a key step towards securing a national supercomputer which will empower users across a variety of sectors and disciplines. HPC has already proved its transformative power in sectors like healthcare, genomics, transport and weather forecasting.
Together, the AI Factory Antenna and the 'Hosting Agreement' strongly enhance Ireland’s computing capacities and capabilities and will provide Irish startups, SMEs and public bodies with access to state-of-the-art computing and AI resource.
These milestones come after the Budget announcement of an increase in the Research and Development tax credit from 30% to 35%, demonstrating commitment to the research sector and the promotion of collaboration between industry and academia. Budget 2026 also saw some €810 million of capital funding for the Further and Higher and Education sector, an almost 20% increase under the National Development Plan and a step change in the State’s support for research and innovation.
NOTES
- Created in 2018, the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) is a joint initiative between the EU, European countries and private partners to develop a World Class Supercomputing Ecosystem. Ireland is a founding member, represented by DFHERIS on its Governing Board.
- It promotes the development of HPC, Quantum Computing and AI capacities and capabilities through the running and co-funding of competitive calls.
- Since its establishment, it has co-funded HPC supercomputers, quantum computers, AI factories and AI factory antennas.
- AIF IRL-Antenna will be linked with the AI Factory in France ‘AI2F’, which in turn will bring large-scale AI-optimised infrastructure and strategic partnership to bridge the AI ecosystems between Ireland and France.
- Additionally, AIF IRL-Antenna will have a second link with the AI Factory in Luxembourg focusing on domain-specific AI specialisation across climate, environment, energy, Space, smart mobility and digital health.