Pictured (l-r): Prof Miles Turner of DCU - Precision SRC; Prof Pádraig Cunningham, UCD - Clique SRC; Prof Brett Paull, DCU - Irish Separation Science Cluster; Dr Jimmy Devins, TD, Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation; Dr William Donnelly, WIT – FAME SRC; Prof Lokesh Joshi, NUIG - Alimentary Glycoscience SRC
In an initiative aimed at creating high-end employment opportunities and driving the knowledge economy agenda, announced by the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment, Mary Coughlan TD, a team led by UCD’s Prof Padráig Cunningham has received funding for the development of computational techniques that have significant commercial potential.
With funding in excess of €3.5 million through Science Foundation Ireland’s (SFI) Strategic Research Cluster programme, Professor Cunningham will lead a team that includes UCD, NUI Galway, IBM, Idiro Technologies and Norkom Technologies. The research programme, named Clique, will build on computing expertise to develop techniques that enable companies to analyse the information they have on their customer and user networks.
Clique’s research will contribute to the general ‘data analytics’ business sector. The market for software for business analytics is worth over $20 billion and is growing at a rate of about 10% per annum. With the massive expansion of commercial and social networks, companies with potentially huge numbers of users and customers need to be able to capture and interpret patterns of behaviour in order to keep customers and develop new products or services to expand their markets. Data analytics also has applications in the area of biological network data that may lead to new drugs and therapies for a variety of diseases and ill-health conditions.
The UCD Clique funding is one of five strategic research clusters announced by the Tánaiste. In total €23.9 million will be invested in these clusters that involve seven universities and Institutes of Technology with 22 industry partners.
UCD is involved in 4 of the 5 clusters announced by the Minister. Welcoming the announcement, Prof Nick Quirke, Principal of the UCD College of Engineering Mathematical and Physical Sciences said, “We are delighted with the foresight of the Government in funding these clusters and see it as a wonderful opportunity to work collaboratively with industry to develop products and solutions that will see Ireland achieve its aim of a Smart Economy. We at UCD are determined in our hope that the innovative collaborations between UCD and industry will drive changes in the economy and establish Ireland as a centre for research and innovation.”
Making the announcement, the Tánaiste said “Science, while engaging and exciting, is also a fiercely competitive arena, and it is increasingly clear that a country’s economic fortunes are significantly dependent on its ability to conduct research that translates into economically-beneficial outcomes.
