Kathy Masterson
A SOFTWARE engineering research centre at the University of Limerick is to benefit from €245 million funding for the establishment of five new world-class SFI Research Centres in Ireland.
Lero, the Irish Software Engineering Research Centre that is head-quartered at UL, will share the funding with four other centres based in Dublin and Galway.
“This funding awarded to Lero will allow us to conduct research on the latest industry software challenges, enabling multinationals and SMEs in Ireland to thrive and maintain a competitive advantage, and establish Lero as a world class centre of software research excellence,” said Professor Mike Hinchey, director of Lero and professor of Software Engineering at UL.
“Software has now become an essential component of virtually all businesses and across all industries and sectors. Lero brings together internationally-recognised research capabilities in software research along with 29 industry partners,” added Prof Hinchey.
Minister for Education and Skills, Jan O’Sullivan commented: “This is good news for UL and good news for Limerick. Our growing reputation as a technology hub will be enhanced as Lero goes from strength to strength.
“Having a strong third level sector in Limerick is crucial to our economic recovery and jobs growth. For more than a year now we have seen falling levels of unemployment in Limerick. It is vital that we maintain that momentum and this investment will help in that regard.”
The funding of €155 million from the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation will be delivered through Science Foundation Ireland’s (SFI) Research Centres Programme, coupled with €90 million in cash and in-kind contributions from industry partners.
The funding, which will be provided over the next six years, will support cutting-edge research in critical and emerging sectors of the economy that are key for job creation in Ireland.
The five SFI Research Centres will be involved in more than 165 industry collaborations with partners such as IBM, Intel, Google and Microsoft.
