The European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) initiative and Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, James Lawless, TD, have announced that Ireland has been successful in a bid to establish an AI Factory Antenna in Ireland (AIF IRL-Antenna).

The AIF IRL-Antenna has been awarded €10 million, evenly co-funded by the EU and Irish Government, to provide a range of AI-focused technical resources and services to the startup, SME and public sectors, and research ecosystem in Ireland.

The AIF IRL-Antenna will be implemented by a national consortium led by the Irish Centre for High-End Computing (ICHEC) and CeADAR, Ireland’s Centre for AI based at University College Dublin (UCD).

CEO of CeADAR, John Lonsdale said: “We look forward to working as joint lead with ICHEC on the AI Factory Antenna in Ireland and building a connected national ecosystem for AI and high-performance computing which aligns with Ireland’s strategic goals and global competitiveness. By connecting advanced computing capabilities with real-world industry needs, the AIF IRL-Antenna will enable SMEs, startups, and public sector organisations to adopt and scale AI responsibly and effectively.”

Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact and AI Champion at UCD, Prof Kate Robson Brown said: “UCD has a strong commitment within our strategy to deliver improved infrastructure that enables the ambitions of our research communities. We aim to deliver on that strategic goal both within and beyond the borders of the university and, in supporting this initiative, we are well positioned to play our part to increase national capabilities, and enable disruptive and creative work that harnesses the power of AI and data-powered technologies.”

The AIF IRL-Antenna project will bring AI-optimised high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure (including AI Sandbox and Secure Data Environment), technical expertise, and talent development through training programmes.

This will accelerate Ireland's twin transition goals – digital and green transformations – across sectors including energy, agriculture, biodiversity, climate, life science, healthcare, smart cities, Space, ‘deep tech’ and manufacturing.

Professor Jean-Christophe Desplat (Director, ICHEC) says: “IRL-Antenna will deliver a critical component of our national Advanced Computing infrastructure, bringing software platform and services for the accelerated adoption of AI within our SME and startup ecosystem as well as public sector bodies.”

The AIF IRL-Antenna consortium includes a network of enterprise accelerators (PorterShed, Dogpatch Labs, RDI Hub, Republic of Works, Advanced Innovation in Manufacturing) and digital skills networks (Innovation Technology AtlanTec Gateway, Digital Technology Skills Ltd.) as associated partners.

The AIF IRL-Antenna will link with the AI Factory in France (AI2F) to bring access to one of Europe’s world-class exascale-class supercomputers (Alice Recoque) for AI development and strategic partnership, to bridge the AI ecosystems between Ireland and France. The partnership would cover infrastructure and data sharing, joint talent development, data spaces and federated infrastructures, and strategy/policy co-development.

Additionally, the IRL-Antenna will have a second link with the Luxembourg AI Factory, focusing on domain-specific AI specialisation across climate, environment, energy, Space, smart mobility and digital health, and access to Meluxina-AI for secure, hyperconnected and scalable computing power.

 

About AIF IRL-Antenna

The bid for the Irish AI Factory Antenna was submitted by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. The bid was also endorsed by DETE (Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment), Enterprise Ireland and Taighde Éireann – Research Ireland.

The three primary objectives of the AIF IRL-Antenna are to

1. Support the implementation of Government strategies relating to Advanced Computing, including HPC, AI, Data Spaces and Quantum Computing.
2. Scale and accelerate AI innovation across the ecosystem by lowering the entry barrier for AI adoption and development.
3. Serve the needs of enterprises (particularly, startups and SMEs) and public sector for AI infrastructure, support and skills.

About EuroHPC JU

Created in 2018, the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) is a joint initiative between the EU, European countries and private partners to develop a World Class Supercomputing Ecosystem. Ireland is a founding member, represented by DFHERIS on its Governing Board.

It promotes the development of HPC and AI capacities and capabilities through the running and co-funding of competitive calls. Since its establishment, it has co-funded HPC supercomputers, quantum computers, AI factories and AI factory antennas.