From left: QUB's Archie Clements, Invest NI's Dónal Durkan, Ulster University's Liam Maguire and Keith Forster from the Department for the Economy. Image: Invest NI
Additional funding will support AI and data science postgraduate qualifications to be delivered by Ulster University and Queen’s University Belfast.
Invest Northern Ireland has announced a new Artificial Intelligence Collaboration Centre based at Ulster University that will help businesses in the country adopt AI to boost their competitiveness and productivity.
Formally launched at an event in Ulster University’s Belfast campus today (28 March), the AI centre has been established following a five-year £16.3m investment from Invest NI, the economic development agency in Northern Ireland, and the country’s Department for the Economy.
Invest NI said the AI centre will help business across a range of industries, from logistics and finance to life sciences, manufacturing and agritech, benefit from advances in the emerging technology that has taken the world by storm.
Conor Murphy, the economy minister of Northern Ireland, said that this investment will help businesses ensure that the potential of AI is “diffused and applied to a broad business base” which will encourage economic growth and benefit the people of the country.
“This collaborative project, with bases in Belfast and Derry, will serve as a hub for innovation, bringing together research expertise and industry professionals to collaborate on cutting-edge projects and solutions,” he said.
“The centre, the people who work there and the important work it will deliver will be an important contributor to my wider economic vision as we aim to raise productivity, promote regional balance, reduce carbon emissions and deliver good jobs.”
As part of the announcement, Murphy said that the Department for the Economy has offered nearly £2.5m to support additional AI and data science postgraduate qualifications to be delivered by Ulster University and Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) to “expand the capacity of our talent pipeline” and meet the needs of industry.
A collaboration between Ulster University and QUB, the AI centre will also encourage greater industrial innovation and collaboration with academia to increase both local and foreign direct investment.
“AI is one of the most important technological developments of the modern era and has the potential to deliver important benefits such as R&D excellence, skills development and increased competitiveness,” said Dónal Durkan, executive director of strategy and partnerships at Invest NI.
“With some 100 local companies already currently using AI technologies in their operations we have an excellent foundation to build upon our capabilities locally. As a region, we are already recognised as an area of excellence in the realm of Big Data and data analytics.
“We now have the opportunity to make our mark in the AI arena and to realise the economic benefits that will come from adopting AI right across our business landscape to improve productivity, deliver good jobs, reduce costs and enhance sectoral competitive positioning.”
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