Government and industry to invest €19.8 million in CNGL Intelligent Content Research
Posted on: 08 October 2013
New investment will help consolidate Ireland’s leadership in US$250 billion global digital media market
- Directly supporting 75 highly-skilled research jobs over 2.5 years
- Includes investment of €6.3 million from 16 industry partners across diverse sectors
- Industry partners include tech giants Symantec, Microsoft, McAfee, Cisco, Welocalize and Intel
- Economic impact of Centre’s work to date includes seven spinout companies, €1.25 million in venture capital, and an additional 30 new high-value jobs for Ireland
- New research programme will tackle issues as diverse as global marketing, customer care, e-learning, fraud detection, and personalisation of content across languages and devices
Mr John Perry TD, Minister of State with responsibility for Small Business at the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, announced Government funding, through Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), of €13.5 million for ground-breaking research in intelligent content at the CNGL Centre for Global Intelligent Content. The funding will leverage a further investment of €6.3 million from 16 industry partners. CNGL’s ambitious new research programme will focus on the development of content processing technologies to adapt and personalise digital content and services to meet the distinct needs and preferences of users across global markets.
CNGL is an academia-industry research consortium dedicated to delivering disruptive innovations in digital media and intelligent content such as multilingual content analysis. The Centre is led by Trinity College Dublin through the School of Computer Science and Statistics and co-hosted by Dublin City University. Now entering its second funding cycle supported by SFI, CNGL’s economic and social impact to date includes the establishment of seven spinout companies, €1.25 million in venture capital raised, and the creation of thirty new high-value jobs for Ireland. The Centre has also attracted a further €7 million in funding from non-exchequer sources, including 15 large-scale European Union-funded projects.
Speaking at an industry showcase of CNGL innovations, Minister Perry said: “The global digital media market is worth an estimated $250 billion. With CNGL now established as a leader in this field, the potential for further jobs creation provides an exciting opportunity for Ireland. This new €19.8 million investment in CNGL will directly support 75 high-class research jobs. The National Research Prioritisation Exercise identified Digital Platforms, Content and Applications as a key area for potential jobs growth and focus. Having a research centre of CNGL’s calibre in Ireland offers significant potential for attracting multinational investment.”
Combining the expertise of world-leading researchers at four universities (Trinity College Dublin, Dublin City University, University College Dublin and University of Limerick), CNGL currently partners with Microsoft, Symantec, Intel, McAfee, Cisco, DNP, Xanadu, Welocalize, Alchemy Software Development, VistaTEC, and many other industry leaders.
Professor Vincent Wade at Trinity and CNGL Director explained how CNGL research focuses on both the challenges and opportunities associated with the explosion of content now available to users, enterprises and communities: “Content is the lifeblood of an organisation, and savvy companies view content as a strategic asset. Today we are experiencing massive growth in volume of content being generated – there are now over 175 million tweets sent per day – and an ever expanding variety of devices on which people access this content. Globally, companies, individuals and communities are increasingly seeking content and services to be delivered according to their own needs, context and preferences and in their own language. Today’s CNGL showcase of industry innovation demonstrates how CNGL is helping companies to make the most of their content in order to engage with their global customers better than ever before, tailor information and delivery strategies to enable global reach markets, detect fraud, manage risk, personalise education programmes, and deliver multilingual customer care.”
Professor Mark Ferguson, Director General of Science Foundation Ireland said: “This academic-industry research consortium is leading the transformation of Ireland’s global intelligent content revolution. The importance of continued investment in excellent scientific research related to Ireland’s on-going and future economic development is imperative. CNGL has clearly delivered tangible economic benefits, to date that include productive engagement with industry collaborators, the establishment of a number of successful spinout companies and the creation of over 30 new jobs. The additional funding further demonstrates the commitment of SFI, Government and industry to establishing a leading international position for Ireland in content intelligence and helping to create high-tech, high-quality employment opportunities for the future.”
Welcoming the success of CNGL, Dr Patrick Prendergast, Provost of Trinity College Dublin, noted: “We are particularly pleased with the considerable success and significant results in industrial impact as well as scientific breakthroughs. CNGL is advancing the frontiers of multilingual content analysis and search, machine translation, personalisation as well as driving standards and internationalisation on the web. The showcase demonstrates the significant impact that CNGL is having with its industry partners.”