NEW RESEARCH centres in cloud computing and energy, additional funding for basic research and increased Enterprise Ireland support for start-ups were among €55 million in initiatives announced by Minister for Enterprise Richard Bruton yesterday.
A new applied research centre for energy and smart grids will receive €6 million from Science Foundation Ireland. It will create 40 jobs for researchers and will partner with companies already working in the area including ESB, Eirgrid, Bord Gáis, Intel, Ericsson and Siemens.
In total, 25 industry partners have committed €2.3 million for the Energy Strategic Research Cluster over the next five years.
The research centre for cloud computing is at an earlier stage of development. But a spokesman for Mr Bruton said it would be established by the end of the year.
A total of €5 million over five years has been committed for research into an area that a recent Microsoft report suggested could generate €9.5 billion in revenues and create 8,600 jobs by 2014.
Details were also given of a €44 million commitment by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) to support 44 research initiatives. Although the detail of the commitment was released yesterday, the funding came from SFI’s 2010 budget provision of €161 million.
The research covers life sciences, technology and energy with industry partners including Sigmoid Pharma, Nestlé, Kerry Group, Intel Labs Europe, IBM, Alcatel-Lucent, Disney Research, and France Teleco.
Mr Bruton also announced that Enterprise Ireland is to create a €750,000 competitive start-up fund for companies in the life sciences and green technology sectors. The fund will provide €50,000 to 15 early-stage companies. Last year Enterprise Ireland established similar funds for games and internet companies and the schemes were oversubscribed.
Enterprise Ireland will also increase the number of high potential start-ups it supports each year from a current average of 80 to 100.
Mr Bruton made the announcement at the Irish Internet Association’s (IIA) annual conference which was held in the Aviva Stadium, Dublin yesterday.
The Minister complimented the IIA for choosing “open for business” as the theme of the event as he said this was a message that the Government wished to send out as well.
With the Central Statistics Office reporting that just 30 per cent of businesses have the capability to transact online, Mr Bruton said “we really have to see change in that area”.
More than 200 business people attended the event which covered areas such as Ireland’s skills deficit, open data and open government, the international content services centre and social media strategy.
