Last month’s announcement of a €460 million investment by Research Ireland in seven new research centres marked the adoption of a new model of research collaboration. The new Rinn network will build on the success of the research centres programme launched by Science Foundation Ireland in 2012.
That programme was designed to position Ireland as a global knowledge leader by developing a network of large-scale, multi-institutional, national centres of research excellence in key strategic areas such as AI, medtech, agri-tech, energy, advanced manufacturing, health, materials, bioeconomy and future communications.
“Up until 2012, the Irish research landscape had universities working largely on their own and competing with one another,” says Stephen O’Driscoll, head of research centres and the Rinn network at Research Ireland. “There was some collaboration, but at a localised scale. With the establishment of the research centres, the critical piece was bringing together strong expertise from across the ecosystem.
“The programme brought institutions together in a different way for a common mission. Part of the effect was to catalyse a huge level of engagement with industry that hadn’t really existed before,” says O’Driscoll. “The centres also built connections with societal stakeholders. It was all about bringing institutions together in a way that made them greater than the sum of the parts.”
RM Block
A new call for proposals for an enhanced research centres programme was issued in 2023. “As part of the call we were looking for a different vision for the research centres. We wanted to bring them together in a network to get a further multiplier effect. This would create capability of national scale to address issues in ways that the research centres couldn’t before that. It is about different ways of collaborating, not just more.”
He gives an example of where this collaboration can deliver meaningful outcomes. Rinn Pharma & Biopharma will focus on two core challenges in drug development, the creation of patient-centred medicines that meet the needs of diverse patient groups and the integration of sustainability into all stages of drug development and manufacturing, he notes.
“The centre is interested in talking to Rinn Quantum, as quantum science has a role in how molecules interact with one another. That capability makes it really compelling for the two centres to work together.”
‘The team will work closely with the centres to help them hit milestones and ensure that the required level of engagement with society and industry is there for the programme to be successful’
— Stephen O’Driscoll, head of research centres and the Rinn network at Research Ireland
The other five centres are Rinn Artificial Intelligence (AI), which is designed to serve as a national hub for research and innovation in data science and AI; Rinn Advanced Therapies, which is focused on the development and manufacturing of personalised advanced cellular immune therapeutics (ACITs); Rinn Medical Devices, which will focus on supporting healthy ageing by 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; Rinn Energy, which was established to drive energy system decarbonisation by delivering an ambitious, world-leading, and scientifically excellent research programme; and Rinn Semiconductors, which will pioneer modular integrated circuit-based (chiplet-based) semiconductor design and integration.
O’Driscoll points out that many of these are successors to existing Research Ireland centres, with Rinn Advanced Therapies and Rinn Quantum being the only two completely new centres.
Collaboration extends far beyond the Rinn network and embraces the engaged research concept. This sees the centres working closely with societal and community stakeholders on research programmes, the broad principle being that research is done with those most affected by the problem and who would benefit most from the solution.
“By developing a deeper understanding of the problem to be addressed you have a much better chance of developing a solution,” says O’Driscoll. “By bringing experts from different fields to work together and by involving societal stakeholders to provide inputs while research questions are being formed, the research will have greater impact and a much better chance of being more meaningful for society.”
Industry engagement continues to be important. Indeed, the centres will leverage additional funding of €500 million from industry partners, including over 100 multinational corporations and almost 100 Irish SMEs. “It will be quite synergistic,” says O’Driscoll. “Ideas and knowledge will flow between the industry partners and the centres.”
Research Ireland will continue to work closely with the Rinn centres, he continues. “Our Research Centres team is made up of a fantastic group of people with broad expertise in the technical disciplines covered by the centre, and many of them have industry experience as well. The team will work closely with the centres to help them hit milestones and ensure that the required level of engagement with society and industry is there for the programme to be successful. We will work with them like investors to monitor and support them. International peer review is a significant part of that.”
This is just the beginning, he points out. “Research Ireland’s strategy is committed to having 14 Rinn centres by 2030. We will have further calls in the coming years to achieve that.”
