Lero software research centre to expand with €46.4 million investment
Ms Jan O’Sullivan TD, Minister for Education and Skills, formally launched an expanded Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Irish Software Research Centre, based in 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.
€32.6m of the investment is being funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) with support from the EU Structural Funds. Industry is backing the initiative with total contributions worth €13.8m. Recruitment for the positions will begin immediately.
The Lero expansion now incorporates software researchers from UCC and NUI Maynooth, which means that all Irish universities including Dundalk Institute of Technology are represented in the national centre, which is located on the University of Limerick campus.
The centre, which already works with industry partners like IBM and Microsoft, will also broaden its research from software engineering to areas including cyber security, the internet of things, cloud computing, medical devices and smart cities.
“The collaboration of the best academic brains from all the country’s universities is unique in Ireland and rare worldwide,” commented Minister O’Sullivan. “This new investment in Lero is an important part of the national infrastructure that will help to attract and retain the world’s leading technology companies in Ireland as well as providing access to a world class software research centre for over 1,000 indigenous tech firms.”
“As a result of investments like this, Ireland can become recognised as a global centre for software research with major benefits for the economy,” added Professor Mike Hinchey, Director, Lero. “Software is at the heart of the most exciting developments in technology as we see the digital and physical worlds increasingly integrate. Today software is everywhere and our quality of life and economic wellbeing depend on it.”
Lero is the Irish software research centre that brings together leading software research teams from Dublin City University, Dundalk Institute of Technology, NUI Galway, NUI Maynooth, Trinity College Dublin, University College Cork, University College Dublin and University of Limerick. The centre has the proven capacity to attract and retain global research leaders and to make a substantial contribution both to software-related research and to the Irish economy.
