Prof Kieran R Byrne, Director, Waterford Institute of Technology has welcomed the announcement by Mary Coughlan TD, Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment that the Institute is to lead one of five new Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Strategic Research Clusters.

FAME ( Federated Autonomic Management of End-to-end Communication Services), represents a €5.86m investment led by Waterford Institute of Technology and spearheaded by Dr William Donnelly, Head of Research at the Institute.

The industry partners involved with the Institute in the FAME strategic research cluster are Cisco Systems, Galway; LM Ericsson Limited, Dublin; IBM Ireland Product Limited, Dublin; Telefónica I+D, Madrid, Spain; and Hewlett Packard, New Jersey, USA.

The Tánaiste said: “Science, while engaging and exciting, is also a fiercely competitive arena, and it is increasingly clear that a country’s economic fortunes are significantly dependent on its ability to conduct research that translates into economically-beneficial outcomes.

“The Government’s ‘Building Ireland’s Smart Economy’ framework prioritises continued investment in science and engineering infrastructure to assist with the creation of a thriving enterprise sector, high-quality employment and first-class infrastructure. The highly skilled personnel involved in these strategic research clusters, together with the partner companies, are central to achieving this.”

Welcoming the announcement, Prof Byrne said: “This is a very significant development for the high-achieving telecommunications research group at this Institute. The FAME strategic research cluster has successfully come through a very comprehensive review underpinned by SFI’s strategy of only supporting the very best. From 40 proposals, it was one of five to emerge successfully and the first ever in the Institute of Technology sector. Ours is also the largest funding allocation secured and this shows that the work involved is regarded as being of value regionally, nationally and internationally.

“This latest designation also demonstrates once again the extent to which the Institute continues to contribute to the knowledge economy and a knowledge-based society. It demonstrates also how the Institute continues to perform in attracting substantial inward investment to the southeast at a time of acute economic difficulties. The potential of this economic engine must be further maximised to ensure that Ireland’s research, development and innovation profiles continues to develop,” he continued.

“The strategic research clusters were introduced just two years ago and recognise the vital importance of linking scientists and engineers in academia with their counterparts in industry to tackle ‘real world’ issues and develop the new technologies that will shape how we live, work and – in this case - communicate in the future. I congratulate Dr Willie Donnelly as lead principal investigator in FAME and also wish him and his colleagues every success with their continued work in partnership with some of the most respected companies in telecommunications globally.”

Speaking about the research to be undertaken by FAME, Dr Donnelly said: “ FAME brings together academics and industry specialists in the management of communications networks and services. This project is pushing the barriers of what is technically possible in terms of allowing forms of self-management, allowing some parts of a network and some services that run on these networks to ‘work out for themselves’ what is needed to operate efficiently.

"Intellectual property (IP) and technical know-how generated by FAME will enable the creation and growth of an Irish-based international communications service management cluster that will grow the considerable investment already made in this sector by multinational companies as well as indigenous communications management companies. Together, this cluster will help position Ireland as a global leader in communications management related research, product development and professional services."