Tánaiste Announces Major Investment of over €45million in SFI Centres for Science, Engineering and Technology (CSETs)

3 CSET Awards Will Support 196 Researchers Working with Industry

Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mary Coughan T.D., has today (Wednesday 17^th December 2008) announced substantial awards totalling €45.7million over five years, through Science Foundation Ireland (SFI). This investment provides 2^nd term funding to three existing world-class research Centres for Science, Engineering and Technology (CSETs), and will be supplemented by an additional contribution from industry of €14.5million, bringing the overall investment to over €60million.

Announcing the awards, the Tánaiste said “From its inception, the SFI CSET programme has been designed to facilitate the creation of internationally-competitive, large-scale research centres that support high-quality collaborations between higher education institutes and industry-based researchers.”

She added “These CSETs link researchers in partnerships across academia and industry to address crucial research questions, foster the development of new and existing Irish-based technology companies, attract industry that could make an important contribution to Ireland and its economy, and expand educational and career opportunities in science and engineering.

“All three centres have been playing a pivotal role in contributing to the Government’s goal of building a world-class research base in Ireland, and developing our human capital to support economic competitiveness. Today is an endorsement of this achievement to date, and marks the beginning of the next chapter for each individual researcher and their respective teams,” the Tánaiste stated.

Also attending the announcement, Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr. Jimmy Devins T.D. said “A total of 12 distinct indigenous and multinational companies will partner with these CSETs, and SFI funding will be bolstered by these industry partners’ contribution of an additional €14.5million in the form of funding, personnel and equipment. The funding announced today will directly support almost 200 researchers, graduate students and others in a well-structured and wholly-collaborative environment between now and 2013.”

The five-year funding awards under the SFI CSET Programme announced today are for:

Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre (APC) based at University College Cork which is focusing on research in gastrointestinal health;

• Director: Prof. Fergus Shanahan,
• Industry Partners: GlaxoSmithKline and Alimentary Health. Other Partners: Teagasc

CRANN, the Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices which is hosted by Trinity College Dublin and is working in the area of Nanotechnology;

• Director: Prof. John Boland
• Industry Partners: Hewlett-Packard and Intel

DERI, the Digital Enterprise Research Institute, based at NUI Galway where the team are researching technologies that will underpin the next generation of the World Wide Web – the Semantic Web.

• Director: Prof. Stefan Decker
• Industry Partners: Nortel Networks (Ireland) Ltd, Cisco Systems Internetworking (Ireland) Ltd., FISC-Ireland Ltd, L M Ericsson Ltd. Storm Technology Ltd., Celtrak Ltd, Cyntelix Corporation Ltd, OpenLink Software (UK) Ltd

Commenting on the awards, Prof. Frank Gannon, Director-General of SFI stated “SFI CSETs have led our portfolio of initiatives that are steadily moving Ireland towards a truly knowledge-based economy. These CSETs have been independently verified as playing an important role in building a world-class research system in Ireland, as well as linking successfully with major multi-national companies and providing an attractor for multinational investment in research in Ireland.

Funding for the three CSETs announced today was approved by the SFI Board following a rigorous, multi-faceted assessment process. This encompassed international scientific peer review, 31 international experts participated in the postal review process and 28 international experts participated in the four on-site reviews. In addition, a ‘Strategic Value to Ireland’ assessment was performed by key Government agency stakeholders, including IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, Forfás, the Higher Education Authority and the Health Research Board.

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For further information, contact:

Alva O'Cleirigh, Communications Manager, SFI, +353 1 607 3249 / + 353 87 9152553

Roisin McCann, Press Officer, Dept. of Enterprise, Trade and Employment +353 1 6312200

Carl Gibney, Fleishman-Hillard +353 1 6188428 / + 353 86 0459555