Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD, and Minister for Skills, Research and Innovation Damien English TD have announced Government and industry funding of €245 million for the establishment of five new world-class SFI Research Centres in Ireland. Lero – The Irish Software Engineering Research Centre which is head-quartered at the University of Limerick is among the 5 world-class research centres to benefit from this announcement.

Professor Mike Hinchey, Director, Lero and Professor of Software Engineering at the University of Limerick welcomed the announcement; “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. 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.”

Lero brings together leading software teams from Universities and Institutes of Technology in a coordinated centre of research excellence with a strong industry focus. Lero has raised the level and profile of Irish software research with such effect that it is now one of the best known and highly regarded software engineering research centres in the world.

Professor Don Barry, President, University of Limerick said; “This investment in world-class research at Lero will support Ireland’s ability to retain and attract top researchers and is another important step in building our smart economy. The University of Limerick is home to two SFI research centres covering the fields of Pharmaceutical (SSPC) and Software (LERO) development and, together with our investment in The Bernal Project, we are furthering our commitment to excellence in science and engineering research and assisting Ireland's economic recovery.”

The funding of €155 million from the Department of Jobs 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 will support cutting-edge research in critical and emerging sectors of the economy which are key for job creation in Ireland. The funding will be provided over the next six years, 2014-2020.

The five SFI Research Centres will be involved in over 165 industry collaborations with partners ranging from multinationals to SMEs and including Intel, Google, Microsoft, Medtronic Vascular Galway Ltd, Xilinx, Huawei and many more.

The new funding has been competitively awarded in areas of national importance closely aligned to industry and enterprise needs, job opportunities and societal goals.  The five new SFI Research Centres are: Lero The Irish Software Research Centre, Adapt, CONNECT Centre for Future Networks & Communications, CÚRAM Centre for Research in Medical Devices, iCRAG Centre for Research in Applied Geosciences.

As a result of today’s announcement there will be a total of twelve SFI Research Centres in Ireland.  Today’s investment marks the second tranche of funding under the SFI Research Centres Programme; last year €300 million (€200 from SFI and €100 from industry) in funding was announced for seven research centres, the largest ever combined Government and Industry co-funding collaboration of its kind in the research field in Ireland.