Government announces €460m investment in new research centres

The centres will have additional funding of €500m leveraged from industry and other sources

Further and higher education, research, innovation and science minister James Lawless.  The Government will invest €460m in seven new national research centres. Picture: Noel Sweeney

The Government will invest €460m in seven new national research centres, focusing on advanced therapies, artificial intelligence, energy, medical devices, pharma/biopharma, and quantum and semiconductors. 

The seven new 'Rinn' Research Ireland centres will support 577 research positions, and develop over 800 PhDs. The  work will be carried out by 17 research bodies including Tyndall in Cork, UCC, MTU, UL, Atlantic Technological University, DCU, Dundalk Institute of Technology, Maynooth University, South East Technological University, Trinity College, Technological University Dublin, Technological University of the Shannon, UCD, University of Galway, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, as well as the National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training, and the Economic and Social Research Institute.

The seven Rinn research centres will have additional funding of €500m to be leveraged from industry and other sources, with support over 100 multinational corporations and almost 100 SMEs.

"The scale and scope of this €460m investment is a powerful statement of Ireland’s ambition in research and innovation," said further and higher education, research, innovation and science minister James Lawless. "Research Ireland centres have, over the last 13 years, fundamentally reshaped our innovation landscape – turning excellent and innovative research into real-world societal and economic impact. Our higher education institutions and enterprise collaborators have been critical to that success. With these seven new Rinn, we are building on this progress by supporting talent, strengthening industry partnerships, attracting foreign direct investment, advancing indigenous industry growth, promoting regional development, and enabling Ireland to remain internationally competitive.”

CEO of Research Ireland Diarmuid O’Brien, said: “The Rinn network is about excellent multidisciplinary research, radical collaboration and deep connectivity at scale across 17 research performing institutions, industry, Government, public sector bodies, and the broader higher education and research system."

Rinn is the Irish word for a point, tip, or headland. The seven Rinn centres will officially commence their activities on July 1. The Rinn (and their funding) are:

• Rinn Advanced Therapies – Research & Innovation in Personalised Immune Cell Therapeutics: €51,057,588 
• Rinn Artificial Intelligence – Research & Innovation in Data Science and AI: €121,752,497 
• Rinn Energy – Research & Innovation in Energy System Decarbonisation: €51,785,397 
• Rinn Medical Devices – Research & Innovation in Medical Devices: €64,488,000 
• Rinn Pharma & Biopharma – Research & Innovation in Making Medicines: €60,324,450 
• Rinn Quantum – Research & Innovation in Quantum Information Science and Technology: €39,621,376 
• Rinn Semiconductors – Research & Innovation in Heterogeneously Integrated Semiconductor Systems: €70,979,936.