Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for AI Driven Digital Content Technology, ADAPT, has been awarded funding of €42 million to extend its next phase of research over the next six years. ADAPT will build on its established leadership in AI-driven digital content technology research.

This announcement was made by Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris TD, as part of an investment of €193 million in five Science Foundation Ireland Research Centres for six years.

Telecommunications networks, cybersecurity, smart cities and more

The five centres will carry out research into smart medical devices, e-health, telecommunications networks, cybersecurity, smart cities, artificial intelligence, ethics and data privacy, as well as applied geosciences, energy security and marine resources. 

 

Minister Harris said: “I am delighted to announce this significant Government investment in five SFI Research Centres, which reflects Ireland’s position as a world leader in research and innovation.

"The investment will ensure that we are prepared for the changes and disruption that we are facing in addressing global societal and economic challenges.

"SFI Research Centres promote discovery and impact, as well as collaboration between academia, government and industry across the Island of Ireland and internationally.

"This support will further enhance the important work these centres have already achieved, so they continue to play a pivotal role in the years ahead in protecting the wellbeing of the population and the economy.  

"The five centres will also work to promote science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) to the wider public through extensive education and public engagement outreach.

"These initiatives include summer computer camps, developing secondary school education modules, and residency programmes for filmmakers, artists and teachers to forge collaborations between researchers and the community."

ADAPT

ADAPT’s research vision is to pioneer new forms of AI-driven digital content technology to empower individuals and communities in their work and everyday lives. In particular, ADAPT's research will enable next generation digital engagement, across video, speech, text and immersive technologies, and support inclusion, accountability, and appropriate controls.

The centre’s work is driven by a long term goal of a balanced digital society by 2030 and it is pioneering new Human Centric AI techniques and technologies including personalisation, natural language processing, data analytics, intelligent machine translation human-computer interaction, as well as setting the standards for data governance, privacy and ethics for digital content. 

ADAPT will significantly expand  its expertise, capacity  and geographical reach by doubling its academic base of principal investigators and funded investigators and by bringing on board four new partner institutions bringing the total to eight research bodies (TCD, DCU, TU Dublin, UCD, NUIM, MTU, NUIG and AIT). 

This expansion will follow the established practice of strategically growing its research base through a programme of timely and targeted recruitment as new research opportunities and funding sources arise. 

ADAPT’s international research leadership, research excellence, industry collaborations, multidisciplinary outlook, strategic national position and the opportunities arising from its scale, makes our researchers highly sought after for collaboration and highly competitive in international funding programmes and has competitively won 40 European research projects.

Societal and industrial challenges

The engagement with NENC-funded research across a spectrum of challenges and collaborators promotes research innovation in  ADAPT, pushing the frontiers of knowledge and bringing new solutions to societal and industrial challenges.

ADAPT’s breakthrough technologies and research applications AI for Media Interaction, Digital Humanities, Health, Data governance, and fintech are being applied across multiple Industry domains, expertly facilitated through the ADAPT Design and Innovation Lab (dLab) to deliver product and service innovation. 

ADAPT's Startup & Development team fosters and steers collaborations between researchers and AI entrepreneurs from startup to successful spinout resulting in 6 successful spin outs to date and 16 commercialisation funds.  

Director of ADAPT and Professor of Computer Science at Trinity College Dublin, Professor Vincent Wade said: “ADAPT welcomes  today’s announcement of a further €42 million funding from Science Foundation Ireland. 

"Ireland is facing challenges in climate change, in health and in building a resilient economy. We see that investment in higher education is vital to address these challenges and allows us to create breakthroughs in digital content technologies, to train the next generation of researchers and innovators, transfer knowledge into Industry creating new jobs, and helping our society to live digitally successfully.”

President of Dublin City University, Prof Daire Keogh said: “This major investment is a resolute endorsement of the work of ADAPT researchers to harness the huge potential of new digital technologies. 

"DCU welcomes the decision to expand ADAPT’s geographic spread, but especially its range of research disciplines. This will allow for innovative new collaborations that will help to address key challenges in areas such as health and the environment, for the benefit of ordinary citizens.”

https://www.adaptcentre.ie