Minister for Education and Skills, Ms Jan O’Sullivan yesterday formally launched an expanded Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Irish Software Research Centre, at the University of Limerick in a €46.4 million investment over six years.
 
The development means that 90 PhD and 46 postdoctoral research positions will be created over the next six years, with recruitment commencing immediately.
 
The Lero expansion now incorporates software researchers from UCC and NUI Maynooth, which means that all Irish universities plus Dundalk IT are represented in the national centre, which is located on the University of Limerick campus.
 
Lero already works with multinational industry partners such as IBM, Fidelity Investments and Microsoft. Indigenous research projects are being implemented with local companies including S3 Group, Statsports and Tullow Oil.
 
Research areas will combine core research with targeted projects in hot sectors including cyber security, Internet of Things, cloud computing, medical devices and smart cities.
 
€32.6m of the investment is being funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) with support from EU Structural Funds. Industry is backing the initiative with total contributions worth €13.8m.
 
Director General of Science Foundation Ireland and Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government of Ireland, Professor Mark Ferguson said, "The Science Foundation  Research Centre programme represents the largest ever state and industry co-funded research investment in Ireland. 

""The programme is supporting an investment of €355 million from SFI matched by €190 million from industry in twelve world class Science Foundation Ireland Research Centres of excellence and scale, one of which is Lero." 
 
Source: www.businessworld.ie