A research institute to conduct work in electronics, photonics and networking technologies will be built on the UCC campus, the Tánaiste said today.
Ms Harney made the announcement at a conference on Emerging Technologies in Optical Systems at the Department of Physics in UCC.
She said the exploitation of networking technologies is a key driver in the internationalisation of Irish business and instrumental in sustaining economic growth.
"The vision for Ireland to be achieved by 2015 is of an economy and society where a significant proportion of enterprise has become technology-based and where higher standards of living are being enjoyed by ever increasing numbers of people," she said.
The new € 7 million institute will have its own legal status as a subsidiary of UCC and will have its own chief officer and a board of directors, Ms Harney said.
The Tánaiste confirmed that she will shortly be finalising the composition of the board of the Institute which will be chaired by Dr Alastair Glass, currently of Science Foundation Ireland.
