As part of a €46.4m investment, Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) is expanding the Lero software research centre at the University of Limerick (UL), creating 136 new research positions.
This expansion will be one of the biggest in Lero’s history, with €32.6m of the investment being funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) with additional support from the EU Structural Funds. There is also a contribution of €13.8m coming from various players in the industry.
The additional funding will also allow for Lero’s expansion to incorporate software researchers from University College Cork (UCC) and NUI Maynooth, which now means that all Irish universities plus Dundalk IT are represented in the national centre.
With recruitment for researchers beginning immediately, the centre will be looking to fill 90 PhD research positions, as well as 46 post-doctoral research posts to help it expand its research scope from purely software engineering to a wider range of software disciplines.
Lero and the SFI said that these research areas will combine core research with targeted projects in up-and-coming sectors, including cybersecurity, internet of things (IoT), cloud computing, medical devices and smart cities.
“As a result of investments like this, Ireland can become recognised as a global centre for software research with major benefits for the economy,” said Lero’s director, Prof Mike Hinchey. “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.”
Hinchey recently spoke with Siliconrepublic.com about the need to encourage the early teaching of mathematics and technology among girls as essential to addressing the gender gap in the tech industry. We also included him our list of Irish software superstars.
Also adding his comments, the SFI’s director-general, Prof Mark Ferguson, said that the €46.4m figure is the largest-ever state and industry co-funded research investment in the history of Ireland.
Software development image via Shutterstock
