Reinsurer Hannover Re has announced plans to invest more than €6 million in research and development (R&D) programme Dublin Digital.
To facilitate this the company plans to create up to 16 jobs in Dublin over the next three to four years.
The announcement marks a significant increase in R&D activities for its Irish subsidiary – Hannover Re (Ireland) DAC.
Its business activities have focused primarily on the transaction of international life and health reassurance and property and casualty reinsurance business up to this point.
The company said it will leverage “the most advanced techniques in text analytics, predictive analytics and computational linguistics” in order to accelerate the development of “intelligent underwriting technologies capable of replicating human intellect”.
To deliver this plan the company has already commenced recruiting a number of positions in Dublin, primarily in the areas of data science and software engineering.
"This investment provides Hannover Re with an exciting platform from which we can leverage Ireland's world-class talent pool to deliver local innovation on a global scale," said Niall Mulvey, general manager at Hannover Re (Ireland) DAC.
“The addition of highly skilled individuals in the areas of data science and software engineering will accelerate our strategic R&D activities and, ultimately, our adoption of intelligent underwriting technologies.”
Klaus Miller, executive board member at Hannover Re, said: “This investment – guided by our Group Strategy 2021-2023 – demonstrates Hannover Re’s commitment to supporting its clients by widening our data analytics capability and enhancing our digital solutions.
“IDA Ireland’s support for our ambitions in the underwriting space played a key role in our decision to locate these strategic R&D activities in Ireland under the Dublin Digital programme.”
IDA Ireland chief executive Martin Shanahan said the move was "a vote of confidence" in Ireland's fin-tech ecosystem.
“A strategic focus for IDA Ireland is to support our client base in their research, development and innovation efforts. I wish the Hannover Re team success with this project and offer the continued support of IDA Ireland.”
