Govt announces five new research centres

Five Research Centres are being set up across the country, with combined Government and industry funding of €245m.

The six year investment will see two centres established at Trinity College Dublin, and one each in UCD, NUI Galway and UL.

They will carry out cutting-edge research in partnership with industry collaborators like Intel, Google and Microsoft.

Up to €155m will come from the Department of Jobs through Science Foundation Ireland’s (SFI) Research Centres Programme, and will be supplemented by €90m from industry partners over the next six years.

Minister for Skills and Research Damien English said they are working to put the right people in contact with each other.

He said: "These SFI Research Centres are ideally positioned to nurture real collaboration across industry and academia in Ireland which supports increased commercialisation of research and will ultimately grow jobs in the STEM sector.

"Importantly, these centres will also strongly position Irish based scientists to win funding through the EU Horizon 2020 funding programme, and will enable us to attract further investment from international companies in the future."