Taoiseach to launch €5m technology research centre

Taoiseach Enda Kenny will today launch a new multi-million-euro technology centre aimed at helping small and medium enterprises create jobs through the commercialisation of the centre’s cutting-edge technology.

Mr Kenny will open the €5m Governance, Risk and Compliance Technology Centre (GRCTC) hosted by University College Cork (UCC) and funded by Enterprise Ireland and the IDA.

The centre’s focus is on developing technology with the potential to save financial organisations millions of euro and which will also create jobs for smaller companies that will have the expertise to provide smarter regulatory solutions to larger financial corporations.

“The global regulatory market is very complex, the centre is focused on the research and development of semantic technologies which deconstruct the complexity and make legal regulations more comprehensible,” said centre director Peter Cowap.

“These are global standards that are being developed in an area that the large corporates are already leading and contributing to. This is where the jobs will emerge and they will emerge; the larger corporates have to apply the regulations and will need this technology.”

The centre, which is one of a network of 15 technology centres rolled out under a nationwide programme, employs approximately 12 people and could expand in line with demand over time, Mr Cowap said.

Companies that are actively involved with the GRCTC, include AIB, TerraNua, Citi, Bank of America and Bank of Ireland.

IDA financial services chief Kieran O’Donoghue heralded the establishment of the centre as a key milestone in positioning Ireland as a location in which to develop technologies that support effective risk management and compliance within the financial services sector.

“The applied R&D undertaken here will help stengthen our value proposition for inward investment in areas that are now of critical importance to both the industry and regulators.”