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Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris TD today announced an investment of €193 million in five Science Foundation Ireland Research Centres for six years.
The five centres will carry out research into smart medical devices, e-health, telecommunications networks, cybersecurity, smart cities, artificial intelligence, ethics and data privacy, as well as applied geosciences, energy security and marine resources.
Speaking today, Minister Harris said:
"I am delighted to announce this significant government investment in five SFI Research Centres, which reflects Ireland’s position as a world leader in research and innovation.
"The investment will ensure that we are prepared for the changes and disruption that we are facing in addressing global societal and economic challenges.
"SFI Research Centres promote discovery and impact, as well as collaboration between academia, government and industry across the Island of Ireland and internationally.
"This support will further enhance the important work these Centres have already achieved, so they continue to play a pivotal role in the years ahead in protecting the wellbeing of the population and the economy.
"The five centres will also work to promote science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) to the wider public through extensive Education and Public Engagement outreach. These initiatives include summer computer camps, developing secondary school education modules, and residency programmes for filmmakers, artists and teachers to forge collaborations between researchers and the community."
Prof Mark Ferguson, Director General Science Foundation Ireland and Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government of Ireland, said:
"To maintain and build on Ireland’s global standing in research, innovation, and discovery, it is crucial that we invest in excellent ideas and research with impact. SFI Research Centres support both basic and applied research, spanning a wide range of sectors at varying levels and stages, and as a country we have benefited from their considerable contributions in the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
"They have made transformational progress in just six years, with increased academic and industrial collaboration, extensive training of PhD students for future skills needs, winning competitive funding from the EU, producing excellent scientific results and driving vital public engagement. We look forward to further strengthening our ability to positively impact our society and economy through excellent scientific research, with continued support from the government and industry in the years ahead."
This investment by Science Foundation Ireland will support approximately 1,060 graduate and Post-Doctoral students and Research Fellows employed by the Centres.
The investment is further backed by significant industry support from 200 industry partners committing over €91 million in cash and in-kind contributions.
The investment is set to benefit the whole country with 17 Higher Education Institutions across the country partnering in Centres, including Athlone Institute of Technology, Dublin City University, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, Dundalk Institute of Technology, Limerick Institute of Technology, Maynooth University, Munster Technological University, NUI Galway, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Teagasc, Technological University of Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork, University College Dublin, University of Limerick, and Waterford Institute of Technology.
The five SFI Research Centres receiving this second phase of funding are:
Other partners include the National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT), Geological Survey Ireland (GSI), Teagasc, Telecommunications Software and Systems Group (TSSG), Cork City Council, Cork County Council, Dublin City Council and Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.
Awards of funding to SFI Research Centres are made following rigorous international expert peer reviews. For more information visit www.sfi.ie/sfi-research-centres.
ENDS
The five SFI Research Centres are:
ADAPT’s research vision is to pioneer new forms of AI-driven Digital Content Technology to empower individuals and communities in their work and everyday lives. In particular, ADAPT's research will enable next generation digital engagement, across video, speech, text and immersive technologies, and support inclusion, accountability, and appropriate controls. The Centre’s work is driven by a long term goal of a Balanced Digital Society by 2030 and it is pioneering new Human Centric AI techniques and technologies including personalisation, natural language processing, data analytics, intelligent machine translation human-computer interaction, as well as setting the standards for data governance, privacy and ethics for digital content.
CONNECT’s mission is to research and develop innovative solutions for the communications challenges facing society today. The Internet of Things, 5G/6G networks and future communications services are the Centre’s main areas of focus. CONNECT is developing telecommunications networks that automatically respond to the needs of the services that run on them. Key research themes include customised, low-latency dependable networks, sustainable Internet of Things with scalable integrated energy harvesting, storage, and power management and intelligent data-driven optimisation.
CÚRAM’s aims to radically improve health outcomes for patients by developing ‘smart’ medical devices and implants. It develops these devices through collaborations with industry partners and hospital groups to enable their rapid translation to clinics, positioning Ireland as the driver in developing medical device technologies that will provide affordable transformative solutions for chronic diseases. Its researchers are designing and manufacturing implants to respond to the body’s environment and delivering therapeutic agents exactly where they are needed. CÚRAM’s outputs will particularly benefit patients with chronic ailments such as heart disease, wound healing, diabetes and musculoskeletal diseases.
iCRAG’s vision is to be a world leader in applied geoscience research, discovery, and public understanding of Earth’s critical resources and environment for a sustainable society. iCRAG is developing innovative science and technology to better understand the Earth’s past, present, and future, to create solutions for a sustainable society. It is driving research in areas that are critical to society and the economy, including the sustainable discovery of energy resources and raw materials required for decarbonisation, climate change mitigation and adaptation, securing and protecting groundwater and marine resources and protecting society from Earth’s hazards such as flooding and landslides.
Lero’s vision is to establish Ireland as a location synonymous with high-quality software research and development and its research spans a wide range of application domains from driverless cars to artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, fintech, govtech, smart communities, agtech and healthtech. Lero has expertise across multiple disciplines from deep theoretical computer science and formal methods through to participatory design, human-computer interaction, ethics and values.
A key objective of SFI's Agenda 2020 is to position Ireland as a global knowledge leader and develop a set of world-leading, large-scale Research Centres that will provide major economic impact for Ireland. The SFI Research Centres Programme was first launched in 2012 to achieve this objective. There are currently sixteen SFI Research Centres, established through a cumulative investment of €684 million from Government through SFI, and a further €466 million committed by industry. SFI Research Centres have drawn also down approximately €172.6 million in cumulative Horizon 2020 funding. The SFI Research Centres link scientists and engineers in partnerships across 812 research bodies across the globe. The Centres have signed 900 collaborative research agreements with 470 companies around the world (230 in Ireland) and attract industry which make important contributions to Ireland’s economy, and expand STEM educational and career opportunities.
After an extensive review of scientific excellence and impact, the ‘2013 Research Centres’ were established in 2015 as a result of the 2013 SFI Research Centres call. These five Research Centres (ADAPT, Lero, CONNECT, CÚRAM and iCRAG) first funding phase ran until December 2020.
Project Ireland 2040, the government's overarching policy initiative seeks to achieve ten strategic outcomes, building around the overarching themes of wellbeing, equality and opportunity. Building on the National Development Plan 2018-2027, and the National Planning Framework to 2040, the strategy articulates the government’s mission to build and maintain a strong economy, supported by enterprise, innovation and skills, through initiatives such as the strengthening of SFI Research Centres and Enterprise Ireland Technology Centres. Specifically, the government aims to support up to 20 SFI world-class Research Centres, collaborating with several hundred companies in all regions.