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Lero’s vision is to establish Ireland as a location synonymous with high-quality software research and development, to the extent that ‘Irish software’ enters the lexicon in the same way as ‘German automotive’ or ‘Scandinavian design’.
Our strategy for achieving this comprises three main pillars:
- Thought leadership and excellence in software research;
- Synergistic and innovative collaboration with industry and academic partners;
- Fostering critical skills and talent for the Irish software industry ecosystem.
Since its foundation, Lero has extended its focus beyond purely software engineering to embrace a more holistic software research agenda reflecting the needs of our industry partners.
Lero’s core platform research is organised into four hubs:
- Hub A: Methods and Standards for High-Integrity Systems;
- Hub B: Autonomous and Adaptive Systems;
- Hub C: Software Performance;
- Hub D: Security and Privacy.


Hub A - Methods & Standards For High Integrity Systems
Lero’s research in methods, standards and high-integrity systems examines the methods we use to develop software and how to make it more efficient.
As companies develop software across the world Lero looks at how global, multi-cultural and diverse teams spread across multiple locations and time-zones can work together. What sort of tools and processes should or could they use and how can they introduce these across multiple locations within global development teams?

Hub B - Autonomous and Adaptive Systems
Increasingly, systems are required to accommodate changes while remaining continuously available. Led by Prof Greg Provan, this hub addresses run-time adaptation techniques that allow a system to react to potentially unforeseen changes in its environment. Adaptive systems offer the possibility of greater automation and utilisation of resources via the so-called “self-* properties” such as self-configuration, self-healing, self-optimisation and self-protection, and are increasingly important to deliver the Internet of Things concept.

Hub C - Software Performance
Cloud based systems like Gmail, Dropbox etc. are in widespread use by both professional organisations and the general public. The ongoing management and monitoring of these type of systems produces huge amounts of data. Lero’s research work seeks to improve the performance and reliability of such cloud applications through ongoing monitoring, testing, migration and integration making it particularly relevant to software companies that run large scale distributed cloud based systems.

Hub D - Security and Privacy
How secure is your data? Not just the data that your health services provider or bank keeps on you but also the information that you put up on social media? Who can see it, access it and use it? How can you better manage and protect it?
How can large businesses and industries ensure that hackers cannot access their confidential financial, business and technical information? In the event of a breach how can they track down the perpetrator and close off future loopholes?