Ireland’s young software programmers set high standards at the National Scratch Coding finals

County Cork student wins National Scratch Coding Competition 2026 Aisling Fitzgerald from Cork has been named the overall winner of the Annual National Scratch Coding Competition, organised by Lero, the Research Ireland Centre for Software and the Irish Computer Society. Aisling, a student from Coláiste Muire Crosshaven, Co. Cork, was presented with his award at...

UL researcher elected to International Core Academy of Sciences and Humanities

A researcher at University of Limerick has been elected as a fellow of the International Core Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Professor Lionel C Briand, Director of Lero, the Research Ireland Research Centre for Software based at UL and Professor of Software Engineering at UL’s Department of Computer Science and Information Systems, is among 23 distinguished scholars...

Minister Naughton launches report on CodePlus initiative for female students in tech

Minister for Education and Youth, Hildegarde Naughton, T.D. has today officially launched a research report showcasing the success of CodePlus, a computing education outreach programme for girls. The aim of CodePlus is to encourage female students in post-primary schools, especially from areas of socio-economic disadvantage, to learn more about computer science so that they can...

Men’s acts of legitimacy can help boost women in tech

By Joe Dermody – Courtesy of the Irish Examiner  “If we want more women in tech, we need the men around them to say, credibly and clearly: ‘This is your field too’,” says Professor Regina Connolly. More women will thrive in tech if men tell them that technology is their field too, says Prof Regina...

Irish researchers embarking on a €1M plus project to progress strategies for the use of AI-generated code for industry and academia

Research to develop future approaches and strategies for the use of AI-generated software code in academia and industry is to be conducted by Lero, Ireland’s top software research centre, at University of Limerick (UL). The research project will seek to understand how Generative AI and its related software development practices will impact future programmer knowledge,...

Lero Launches the Irish Reproducibility Network

New Network to strengthen reproducibility and transparency in Irish research is launched A new network aimed at strengthening reproducibility and transparency in how research is conducted in Irish research bodies has been launched. The Irish Reproducibility Network (IRN) is an all-island peer-led network that connects researchers, librarians, data stewards, and research development professionals from 17...

National Open Source Innovation Summit 2026

February 6th, 2026, in Trinity College, Dublin Shaping the Future of Open Source Now in its second year, the National Open Source Summit 2026 convenes leading international speakers and participants from the open source community. The summit explores opportunities for open source in government, industry, and academia. Features real-world innovation stories, highlights emerging trends, and...

World-first tool reduces harmful engagement with AI-generated explicit images

Lero researchers in based in UCC, John Twomey and Lero Funded Investigators Dr Gillian Murphy and Dr Conor Linehan, School of Applied Psychology, launch a new toolkit to combat engagement with AI deepfakes. The toolkit is available here https://www.ucc.ie/en/deepfake-real-harms/ Read the full article : https://www.rte.ie/news/munster/2026/0116/1553323-ai-deepfake-toolkit/

Lero and Department of Computer Science and Information Systems at University of Limerick secure an Athena SWAN Silver Charter

Lero together with the University of Limerick’s Department of Computer Science and Information Systems have been recognised with an Athena SWAN Silver Award. The award, an accreditation of the Athena SWAN Charter which is a framework aimed at promoting gender equality in higher education and research, holds extra significance as it is the first  computer...

Coding for Kids – Scratch Competition 2026 Launches Today

The 2026 Scratch Competition will launch today, Wednesday the 26th November. Run by the Irish Computer Society (ICS) and Lero, the Research Ireland Centre for Software, the Scratch Competition promotes computing and software development at both primary and secondary school levels. Since the inception of the Scratch competition in 2010, coding has become one of the...