Tyndall National Institute

The Tyndall National Institute at University College Cork is Ireland’s largest ICT research centre, with more than 500 researchers, >130 postgraduate students and support staff. The strengths of the institute at the present time lie in the area of photonics, electronics and integrated circuit design, materials and nanotechnologies and their applications in communications, healthcare, energy and the environment. The centre has strategic research projects funded through national and industry sources, addressing all aspects of photonic systems starting from the basic materials, over photonic devices and assembly up to full system demonstrations. Facilities at the centre are extensive, including epitaxial growth, device fabrication, photonic/electronic packaging and advanced system characterisation. Tyndall has an annual income of €40M, has generated 9 spin-off companies and has over 200 industry partners and customers worldwide. Tyndall is the host of the Irish Photonic Integration Centre (IPIC). The Irish Photonic Integration Centre (IPIC), which was launched in 2014 is a new centre funded by Irish Government through Science Foundation Ireland (SFI). The Centre brings together more than 100 researchers from three other Irish higher level institutes - Cork Institute of Technology (CIT), University College Cork (UCC) and Dublin City University (DCU) - all to develop new light enabled technologies. IPIC also collaborates with 20 industry partners, including multinationals, indigenous SMEs and high tech start-ups. Targeting the ICT and medical devices sectors, IPIC is working with 20 industry partners to develop the next generation of highly –compact and miniaturized photonic technologies. This will require major advance in photonic integration to enable much higher levels of functionality whilst simultaneously reducing the cost and size of devices. IPIC is developing solutions to this challenge that are ‘bringing photonics to life’ by opening new ways to connect people and their environments through the application of light. The Centre’s work is focused on: (a) Enabling continued growth of the internet through faster more energy efficient devices for information transport, storage and display (b) Delivering smart medical devices for improved diagnosis and treatment of disease through the integration of photonics onto surgical instruments and into compact high sensitivity analysis equipment and (c) Developing systems for food and environment monitoring. Tyndall has an impressive track record in EU funding, having participated in over 90 EU FP7 projects with a total worth of €299M, and acting in 27 projects as coordinator. In Horizon 2020, Tyndall is currently participating in 105 projects, coordinating 13.