The Government has launched a new national research network which will include dedicated funding for innovation in the areas of data science, AI and medical devices.
The new Rinn network will involve 17 research-performing institutions, more than 500 researchers and over 800 PhD candidates, and will be focused on building national research capability in areas of strategic importance. Seven new Rinn centres will span advanced therapies, artificial intelligence, energy, medical devices, pharma and biopharma, quantum information science and technology, and semiconductors.
Backed by €460 million in Government funding, with a further €500 million to be leveraged from industry and other partners, with support from over 200 industry partners comprising over 100 multinational corporations and almost 100 SMEs.
Rinn Artificial Intelligence will receive ring-fenced funding of almost €122 million over eight years and is designed to serve as a national hub for research and innovation in data science and AI. The programme has two overarching goals – advance foundational cutting-edge research in data science and AI, and to pursue open, international, and inter- and transdisciplinary research aimed at addressing societal challenges. Rinn Artificial Intelligence and Rinn Quantum meet the commitments set out in the national digital and ai strategy, Digital Ireland, to establish a leading AI research centre of scale and a quantum centre of excellence.
Another €64.5 million is being ring-fenced for research and innovation in medical devices. Rinn Medical Devices is focused on developing medical device innovations that tackle the chronic conditions most likely to affect people as they age, from heart and kidney disease to neurological conditions, cancer, and beyond. The aim is to ensure that the devices that are developed are not just scientifically sound, but genuinely meaningful to the people they are designed to help.
“The scale and scope of this €460 million investment is a powerful statement of Ireland’s ambition in research and innovation,” Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, James Lawless, said at the launch of the network. “With these seven new Rinn, we are building on this progress by supporting talent, strengthening industry partnerships, attracting foreign direct investment, advancing indigenous industry growth, promoting regional development, and enabling Ireland to remain internationally competitive.”
Dr Diarmuid O’Brien, CEO of Research Ireland, said: “The Rinn network is about excellent multidisciplinary research, radical collaboration and deep connectivity at scale across 17 research performing institutions, industry, Government, public sector bodies, and the broader higher education and research system. Each Rinn will develop world-class talent, drive enterprise engagement with research, and reinforce Ireland’s international standing by creating a unique research and innovation ecosystem of international significance and scale. A key action in our recently launched strategy is the delivery of an enhanced Research Ireland centres programme that will enable the development of national centres of international scale in areas of key strategic importance. Rinn firmly sets that action in motion.”
It is expected that significant advances will be made through collaboration between the different Rinn centres. For example, collaboration between AI, advanced therapies and medical devices will build towards medical digital twins, smarter diagnostics and more personalised treatment pathways that connect discovery, device development and clinical insight. Collaboration between pharma, biopharma, AI and advanced therapies will enable faster discovery, more predictive development, better trial design and new approaches to complex conditions that are difficult to treat through conventional models alone. Collaboration between AI, social science, regulation and public policy aims to create trusted pathways for adoption so that powerful technologies are explainable, responsible and designed around people, institutions and society.
The 17 Rinn Participating Research Performing Bodies are: Atlantic Technological University, Dublin City University, Dundalk Institute of Technology, Economic and Social Research Institute, Munster Technological University, Maynooth University, National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training, South East Technological University, Trinity College Dublin, Tyndall National Institute, Technological University Dublin, Technological University of the Shannon, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, University College Cork, University College Dublin, University of Limerick and University of Galway.
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