Maynooth University collaborates with ADAPT SFI Research Centre for AI Driven Digital Content Technology

Monday, February 1, 2021 - 13:30

Maynooth University collaborates with ADAPT SFI Research Centre for AI Driven Digital Content Technology

  • ADAPT increases geographical reach to include four new institutional partners including Maynooth University
  • Minister Harris announces €42 million investment for ADAPT, the SFI Research Centre for AI Driven Digital Content Technology
  • ADAPT extends its interdisciplinary research team by incorporating leading experts from the complementary fields of, Social Sciences, Communications,Commerce/Fintech, Ethics, Law, Health, environment and Sustainability to drive better health and wellbeing outcomes. 

 
Dublin, Feb 1 2021: The Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for AI Driven Digital Content Technology, ADAPT, has been awarded a funding award of €42million to extend its next phase of research over the next six years. Through this new phase finding phase, ADAPT will build on its established leadership in AI driven Digital Content Technology Research. 
 
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 (PIs) and Funded Investigators (FIs) and by bringing on board four new partner institutions bringing the total to 8 research  bodies (TCD, DCU, TU Dublin, UCD, Maynooth University, CIT, 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. 
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, create new jobs, and help our society to live digitally successfully.”
Prof Ray O’Neill, Vice President for Research and Innovation, Maynooth University, said: 
“We welcome this new funding and the formalization of our partnership with ADAPT. Through the leadership of Prof Aphra Kerr, researchers in MU will collaborate with the ADAPT centre to understand and shape the social, ethical and business impacts of AI in media, health, finance and beyond. ADAPT will also further the MU strategy to contribute to a wider consideration of the potential societal impacts of technology.”
 
Professor Aphra Kerr, Dept of Sociology and MU Social Sciences Institute, said:
“This is an exciting opportunity for MU academics from the social and computer sciences to collaboratively shape sustainable and trustworthy AI driven digital content technologies. MU efforts will be focussed on embedding transparency, accountability and responsibility into the design and governance of these technologies, translating ethical principles into practice, and engaging with the public and our partners to better understand the opportunities and risks associated with the deployment of AI in diverse contexts.”
Professor Markus Helfert, Director of the Innovation Value Institute, said: "The strategic partnership with Lero and ADAPT allows researchers at Maynooth University and our industry partners to benefit and contribute to world leading expertise that assist industry in their digital transformation. The significant challenges associated with Digitalisation require an interdisciplinary approach.  The deep understanding of digital technologies and enterprise capabilities together with governance processes and the wider societal implication enables us to make the digital transformation a success that benefits all stakeholders."
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. 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.  
 
About ADAPT 
 
ADAPT is the world-leading SFI research centre for AI Driven Digital Content Technology co-hosted by Trinity College Dublin and DCU.  ADAPT’s partner institutions include University College Dublin, Technological University Dublin, Maynooth University, Munster Technological University, Athlone Institute of Technology, and the National University of Ireland Galway. ADAPT's research vision is to pioneer new forms of proactive, scalable, and integrated AI-driven Digital Content Technology that empower individuals and society to engage in digital experiences with control, inclusion, and accountability with the long term goal of a balanced digital society by 2030. 
 
ADAPT is funded by Science Foundation Ireland and co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). 
 
ADAPT  
6 spin outs 
43 collaborative research projects
52 Licence Agreements 
16 Active commercialisation funds 
40 EU research projects competitively won change to 40 
52 commercialisation awards 
1182 Conference Publications changes to 
493 Journal Publications changes to 90 PHD graduates