US tech giant is to make a "significant investment" in the State as Santry lab becomes Centre of Advanced Studies, writes Karlin Lillington

IBM will make "a significant investment" in research and development in the Republic after designating its Santry Dublin Software Lab as one of seven global IBM Centres of Advanced Studies.

The programme will see five research scientists and five graduate students employed to work with Santry researchers on areas of interest to IBM, on a renewable six-month basis.

IBM Ireland views the programme as an initial step in establishing the Republic as a recognised location for IBM research, leading ultimately to significant IBM research and development in the State.

"Ideally, we'd like to have more software development here, so we want to establish a research agenda. But first, you must make a case that it is technically credible to do that in Ireland," says Mr Bill Kearney, manager of the Dublin Software Lab.

"If we can prove that we have good thought leadership and technical leadership here, we have a better chance of getting R&D into Ireland."

The first Centre for Advanced Studies was established at IBM's Toronto Research Lab - one of IBM's main R&D facilities - in 1990 to strengthen links between research communities and IBM.

Ironically, the Republic was one of two other global locations in the final running against Canada as a location for the R&D lab at that time, according to Canadian government officials in Toronto.

Toronto already had a well-established network of high-end research institutes and universities backed by government R&D funding by the late 1980s, when similar funding and support was virtually non-existent in Irish universities. Dublin consequently lost the project.

Mr Kearney said some related programmes would also bolster IBM's research connections to academia in the Republic.

The first is Extreme Blue, an internship programme for undergraduate students that placed eight students in summer work programmes at IBM this year.

Students work in teams with IBM researchers on projects in IBM's Lotus software division, where they are given mentors and are expected to contribute as a full member of each team.

Projects this summer included one exploring the possibilities of linking telephony to instant messaging, and another adapting a variety of small browser-based programmes to run on the Lotus platform.

Extreme Blue is one of IBM's most popular university-level programs. Some 200 students are involved annually, and 6,000 students apply for the positions worldwide.

The Irish students met some of IBM's most senior researchers and executives, and will travel to Germany to see a presentation of research.

"They get to meet executives you wouldn't meet if you worked here for 10 years," laughs Mr Kearney. "They get to work with some of our best people."

IBM expects to hire three out of four of the Extreme Blue students, he says.

The Republic has already proven it has research students of high calibre. According to Mr Kearney, the top research programme for students at IBM are Watson Fellowships, which provide full PhD sponsorship.

This year, 500 graduate students applied for the fellowships, and 50 were sponsored. Of those 50, seven went to Europe.

Of those seven, two went to Irish students - both research students at Dublin City University.

"So we have growing proof of Ireland as a place to do this kind of programme," said Mr Kearney, referring to Centres of Advanced Studies.

He said IBM also hoped to bring in some academic scientists - research scientists who would not be paid by IBM under the Centres for Advanced Studies programme, but who could carry out research alongside IBM scientists if it dovetailed with an area of their interest.

Mr Kearney believes such a role might be of interest to younger academics interested in establishing a portfolio of research experience.

Centres for Advanced Studies will be under way in 2004-05, with the closing date for scientist applications on November 14th of this year, says Mr Kearney.

"We'll get the scientists on board first, have them decide a work agenda, then bring the PhDs in," he says. The five graduate student positions are expected to emerge for students who will be brought in by the scientists themselves, who typically will have students working with them on their academic projects already.

"What we want all these people to do is to help us figure out where we should be going in the next few years, and be part of the thought leadership that gets us there," says Mr Kearney.