Tuesday 5th March, Dublin – Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys TD and Minister of State for Training, Skills, Innovation, Research and Development, John Halligan TD, today announced an investment of over €100 million in six new SFI Centres for Research Training. The SFI Centres for Research Training programme, the first postgraduate training programme run by Science Foundation Ireland, will provide training for 700 postgraduate students in areas of nationally and internationally identified future skills needs of digital, data and ICT.
The SFI Centres for Research Training are now open for recruitment, and postgraduate students across the country are encouraged to apply for this innovative programme which will build on research excellence in Ireland.
Welcoming the announcement of the SFI Centres for Research Training, Minister for Business, Enterprise, and Innovation, Heather Humphreys TD said: “In Project 2040, the Government has set objectives that will ensure a strong economic future for Ireland. Delivering on these will require continued investment in skills and talent in research and development, equipping the champions of this future economy with the tools and expertise necessary to build it.
“The six new SFI Centres for Research Training will bring together the higher education sector and industry to develop and deliver innovative programmes of research and training for postgraduate students in Ireland.
“In line the Government’s new Future Jobs initiative, which we will launch in the coming days, these programmes will allow students to develop and learn about critical technologies for the future in areas like machine learning, artificial intelligence and more. This is all part of our wider effort to ensure that we are preparing now for tomorrow’s economy.
The SFI Centres for Research Training will generate strong collaborations between research and industry. They will involve partnerships across multiple Higher Education Institutions including University College Dublin (UCD), Technological University of Dublin (TUD), Dublin City University (DCU), Trinity College Dublin (TCD), Cork Institute of Technology (CIT), University College Cork (UCC), Maynooth University (MU), University of Limerick (UL), NUI Galway (NUIG), Tyndall National Institute (TNI) and Royal College of Surgeons Ireland (RCSI).
A number of SFI Research Centres and approximately 90 major industry partners will also support the SFI Centres for Research Training.
Operating on a thematic basis in terms of skills needs, the first SFI Centres for Research Training will focus on the area of ‘Data and ICT Skills for the Future’. This area highlighted in particular by the Government’s Future Jobs initiative, which prepares for the future economy by investing in innovative, disruptive technologies. The scope of this thematic area includes innovative software and hardware-based information and communications technologies (ICT) as well as the diffusion of ICT in other application areas of science and technology. With ICT playing a role as a key enabling technology in other application areas of science and technology, the development and adoption of disruptive technologies will also be a focus for this round of funding.