€7m investment for MTU's Cork Cyber Innovate initiative
Josette O' Mullane, innovation and enterprise manager at MTU and Donna O’Shea, chair of Cybersecurity MTU. Picture: Darragh Kane
A cyber security innovation hub is to be established at a Cork university which was crippled in a major cyber-attack last year.
A €7m investment will be announced in the Munster Technological University’s (MTU) Cork Cyber Innovate initiative on Friday which is designed to boost cyber security innovation and entrepreneurship in Ireland over the next six years.
Enterprise Minister Simon Coveney will formally launch the Enterprise Ireland-funded initiative which will produce highly skilled graduates, who it’s hoped will create new products, services, as well as new companies and jobs in Ireland’s €1bn cyber security sector, which already employs over 7,300 people.
Cyber Innovate, which will be based at MTU’s Rubicon Centre, will take an intake of 12 to 15 participants every year for the next six years.
Each intake will work intensively over 10 months to identify problems and develop “real-world cyber security solutions”.
They will work with researchers in MTU and other universities to develop their solutions with support from Enterprise Ireland commercialisation funds.
They will be supported with a tax free €38,000 stipend, and they will graduate with a postgraduate diploma in cyber security innovation.
Dr Donna O’Shea, the chair of cybersecurity at MTU, said the initiative isn’t just an investment in MTU becoming a truly great and globally competitive university, it’s an investment in making Ireland a global leader in cyber security innovation and entrepreneurship.
“We believe the realisation of the Cyber Innovate initiative will see an Ireland that is cyber innovative, cyber secure and cyber successful,” she said.
“Graduates of this initiative will have the latest skills and know-how to create new and useful products. These products will help businesses stay secure online while boosting Ireland's cyber security industry revenue.”
A spokesperson for MTU said initiative is grounded in industry needs and backed by academic rigour from the university, said the graduation annually of an elite group with cyber security innovation expertise should lead to the creation of many new start-ups.
The initiative is similar to Bio Innovate based in University of Galway which has contributed to innovation in the medical device and digital health sector.
Figures from Cyber Ireland show there are over 170 cyber security companies and 470 cyber security related companies generating €2.1bn in cyber security-related revenue and €1.1bn gross value added to the Irish economy.
The median salary for a cyber security role in Ireland is €75,000.