Ireland’s R&D capacity showcased as IDA Ireland and SFI co-host R&D Seminar in Japan

Ireland’s success in R&D is based on a culture of cooperation and collaboration to win complex, high value, sophisticated investments. The country’s pro enterprise philosophy of inclusiveness, informality and teamwork are the foundations on which Ireland is increasingly viewed as an exciting location for R&D. This is supported by the fact that 43% of all IDA supported foreign direct investments into Ireland in 2008 were Research, Development initiatives.

Barry O'Leary, CEO IDA Ireland

IDA
Taoiseach Brian Cowen T.D. announces R&D investments by leading Japanese companies

Thursday 15th January 2009 – An Taoiseach Brian Cowen, TD delivered a keynote speech and announced new investments for Ireland at the IDA Ireland and Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) co-hosted R&D Seminar in Japan yesterday.

The seminar was completely oversubscribed and attended by over 150 key decision makers from Japanese high tech companies. The objective was to provide an overview of Ireland's R&D environment, supporting ecosystem, examples of recent Japan-Ireland joint R&D projects and presentations by major research institutes in Ireland of current research projects to a targeted Japanese audience.

Taoiseach, Brian Cowen TD announced three highly significant Japanese R&D announcements for Ireland at the seminar.

• In a joint initiative by Sony, Toshiba and IBM (STI), Trinity College Dublin (TCD) has been chosen as the location for a research centre into the Cell Broadband Engine, the powerful chip at the heart of the Sony Playstation 3. The centre of competence, to be located at Trinity's, SFI funded, Graphics, Vision and Visualisation Research Group, is being funded by Sony, Toshiba and IBM with the support of IDA and Enterprise Ireland. The Cell Broadband Engine is amongst the most powerful processors in the world, in addition to powering the PlayStation 3 it is used in high-end Toshiba notebooks and a new range of blade servers from IBM.
• Alps Electric announced that it is to establish a design team to introduce a new technology into the European Automotive market and position it as the Market Leader in terms of safety and driver interface. The team will work in the areas of both mechanical construction and software controls and will build on the HAPTICS technology of the Alps group. It will build significant technical capability and knowledge within the Irish operation and strengthens their position within the Alps group.
• Shimadzu, a company working in the areas of scientific, medical, industrial and process control equipment announced that it is to collaborate with The Applied Optics Group in NUIG, Galway in the area of imaging techniques. The SFI funded Applied Optics Group, NUIG, under Professor Chris Dainty are leaders in the field of novel imaging techniques.

Barry O’Leary, CEO IDA Ireland commented on Ireland’s success in R&D which spans a wide range of businesses and sectors. “Ireland’s success in R&D is based on a culture of cooperation and collaboration to win complex, high value, sophisticated investments. The country’s pro enterprise philosophy of inclusiveness, informality and teamwork are the foundations on which Ireland is increasingly viewed as an exciting location for R&D.” He added “This is supported by the fact that 43% of all IDA supported foreign direct investments into Ireland in 2008 were Research, Development initiatives”

Speaking at the seminar, Frank Gannon, Director General, SFI said: “The seminar will help to foster relationships which will lead to new high quality collaborations between industry and academia and will be a catalyst for new partnerships with Japanese companies. This is a very significant event bringing together the very best examples of Irish research capabilities by research leaders funded by SFI of direct relevance to senior decision makers in the ICT and Life Sciences sectors in Japan. We are hopeful that this unique opportunity will develop into investments from Japanese multinationals and collaborative research projects with Irish academic institutions.”

The seminar at which only standing room remained was attended by most of the major Japanese ICT and Life Sciences companies. Companies attending the event included: Sharp, Panasonic, TDK, Canon, Mitsubishi from the ICT sector and Takeda, Astellas, Olympus and Mitsubishi Tanabe from the Life Sciences sector.

IDA Ireland (Industrial Development Agency) is an Irish Government agency with responsibility for securing new investment from overseas in manufacturing and internationally traded services sectors.

Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) is a key organisation in the implementation of the NDP 2007-2013 and the Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation 2006-2013.

SFI provides awards to support scientists and engineers working in the fields of science and engineering that underpin biotechnology, information and communications technology and sustainable energy and energy-efficient technologies development.

For more information please contact

IDA Ireland – Trevor Holmes, Head of Corporate Communications, +353 1 6034023

SFI – Alva O'Cleirigh, PR & Communications Manager, +353 1 607 3249