€56m to develop ‘smart economy’

A €56 MILLION Government investment aimed at developing Ireland’s smart economy will see Cork’s Tyndall Institute play a role.

The Government moved ahead with the opening of competence centres at the country’s universities where firms will work together on research projects.

Tánaiste Mary Coughlan said the move means a departure from the traditional approach to R&D in favour of a collaborative system where firms that might ordinarily be competitors agree to share knowledge, risk and the rewards of pooling their research resources.

“These industry-led centres will convert the research undertaken into new products and services, leading to growth in export markets and jobs in Ireland,” she said.

There will be 180 small and medium firms as well as multinational companies involved in nine centres, five of which are established.

Those established cover bioenergy and biorefining, IT innovation, applied nanotechnology, composite materials and microelectronics.

Enterprise Ireland chief executive Frank Ryan said the centres are a “radical step” in enabling companies to achieve transformational change that is required to re-boot the economy.

“We have chosen an industry-led competence centre model in partnership with IDA Ireland, as it is regarded as the most sophisticated R&D vehicle that currently exists internationally,” he said.

Enterprise Ireland has €32m for the five initial centres and anticipates investing €24m over five years across the nine centres.

Head of business development at Tyndall Kieran Flynn said the move “will enable Tyndall to more effectively deliver its technology and expertise to those companies for the benefit of the Irish economy”.