IT IS vital that Irish companies have access to state-of-the-art research and development facilities that can compete globally if Ireland is to develop a smart economy, according to Tánaiste Mary Coughlan. She was speaking yesterday when she officially opened a €48.7 million facility at the Tyndall Institute in Cork.
Ms Coughlan said that through strategic investments from Science Foundation Ireland, the Tyndall Institute, which is attached to UCC and specialises in information and communications technology hardware research and commercialisation, had established itself as an international centre of excellence.
The institute will also host the Enterprise Ireland-funded Competence Centre for Applied Technology, which was established by companies that have come together to define their common research interests, she added.
Among the companies involved are Intel, Seagate, Medtronic and Analog Devices, along with Irish firms Aerogen, Audit Diagnostics, Creganna and Proxy Biomedical.
Intel Ireland managing director Jim O’Hara said Ireland needed facilities of the calibre of Tyndall to be at the forefront of new technology research, and the new facility would allow Tyndall work on new concepts relevant to Intel and other Irish technology companies.
Tyndall chief executive Prof Roger Whatmore said the opening of the new facility marked the beginning of a new phase in Tyndall’s mission as a key enabler of the so-called smart economy, which will see research developed over the past 10 years translated into real-world solutions.
“This translation of research solutions by our Irish-based industry partners, both indigenous and multinational, into industry has been one of the hallmarks of Tyndall’s success and we look forward to continuing to develop real economic value to the Irish economy,” he said.
The president of UCC, Dr Michael Murphy, said that the Tyndall Institute had played a crucial role in both increasing UCC’s research income by 40 per cent over the past five years to €79 million last year, and expanding the number of doctoral students at the university by more than 50 per cent to just under 1,000.