The new Rinn centres will support 577 research positions, develop more than 800 PhDs and collaborate with 17 ‘research-performing organisations’.

The Irish Government has announced a €460m investment for seven new Research Ireland centres, which will each operate under a new national research network called ‘Rinn’ – the Irish word for point, tip or headland – over the next eight years.

The seven Rinn research centres will focus on the areas of advanced therapies, AI, energy, medical devices, pharma and biopharma, quantum, and semiconductors.

The centres will support 577 research positions, develop more than 800 PhDs and collaborate with 17 “research-performing organisations” according to today’s (10 June) announcement, which took place at the RDS in Dublin.

These research-performing institutions include the likes of Atlantic Technological University, Dublin City University, National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training, South East Technological University, Trinity College Dublin, and Tyndall National Institute, to name a few.

The Rinn centres will also receive additional funding of €500m to be leveraged from “industry and other sources”, with support from more than 200 industry partners comprising more than 100 multinational corporations and nearly 100 SMEs.

Announcing the funding today, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science James Lawless, TD said the “scale and scope” of the investment is a “powerful statement of Ireland’s ambition in research and innovation”.

“Research Ireland centres have, over the last 13 years, fundamentally reshaped our innovation landscape – turning excellent and innovative research into real-world societal and economic impact. Our higher education institutions and enterprise collaborators have been critical to that success,” he said.

“With these seven new Rinn, we are building on this progress.”

Each of the seven Rinn research centres will be allocated a portion of the €460m funding package.

The largest amount (nearly €122m) will be allocated to the Rinn AI centre, while the centre for semiconductors will receive nearly €71m, followed by the centre for medical devices with €64m.

The Rinn centre for pharma and biopharma will receive roughly €60m, while the centres for advanced therapies and for energy will both receive roughly €51m each, followed by the centre for quantum at approximately €39m.

The seven Rinn centres will officially commence their work on 1 July, according to Research Ireland.

“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,” said Dr Diarmuid O’Brien, CEO of Research Ireland.

“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.”

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