CHINESE telecoms company Huawei has committed to a €6 million research funding package for Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland software research centre based at the University of Limerick.
The investment will fund a research programme aimed at improving the reliability of software applications as part of a joint agreement with Huawei’s Research Centres in Ireland and Sweden.
Lero researchers from UL, Trinity College Dublin, NUI Galway and Dublin City University will take part in the four-year research programme which gets under way shortly.
Last August, Huawei announced it would invest €70 million in Irish research and development over the coming three years.
Huawei Ireland chief executive Jijay Shensaid said that they consistently worked with our their key stakeholders to build positive relationships.
“Lero is a world-leading software research centre with expertise second to none in several advanced software engineering topics. We are delighted to begin working with them on this research programme,” he added.
Lero Director, Professor Brian Fitzgerald, said: “Lero is working on implementing advanced software engineering techniques across a range of topics. This research programme brings together top software researchers from around Ireland to work with Huawei on a series of projects aimed at making software more efficient and reliable.”
“There has been a dramatic increase in both the volume and complexity of the software that needs to be produced globally. This project will help industry generate the best possible software over the four years of the strategic research partnership. As a company who have a strong record of research-led innovation, we look forward to working with Huawei on this programme,” he added.
It is expected that the four-year alliance will result in a number of leading-edge research projects on advanced software engineering topics, leading to dedicated knowledge transfer workshops and publications in major journals.
To mark the launch of the programme Professor Fitzgerald and Yargin Xiao, President of Huawei Ireland Research Centre along with Frank Du, President of Huawei Sweden Research Centre, planted a Ginkgo tree outside the Lero offices in UL. The tree’s leaf is the emblem of the research programme.
