Lero’s goal is to deliver world-leading research in software engineering with a special emphasis on Evolving Critical Systems. Lero will enhance the quality and competitiveness of the Irish software industry through shared projects, knowledge transfer and education. Application domains where critical systems are constantly evolving include: automotive, telecoms, medical devices and financial services sectors.

In order to expand and improve our research portfolio further, Lero is seeking strategic alliances with key industrial partners in research areas of mutual interest. If you wish to find out more about working with Lero please contact us.

Benefits to Lero-Industry Collaboration

Lero has always pursued industry collaboration as an enabler for industrially-relevant software engineering research. We benefit from collaboration with industry in a number of ways: primarily it opens us up to industrially-significant problems. Collaboration grants us access to outside expertise, tools, techniques, and datasets, as well as the ability to validate research concepts in the field.

The benefits to industry are primarily from access to Lero's research competencies. Lero researchers have expertise across the software engineering spectrum, collaboration enables our industry partners to benefit from access to this knowledge and expertise. By leveraging those competencies, industry is able to understand and tackle problems that might otherwise have been beyond their existing skill sets. Collaboration introduces industry to students, who work with them over the course of their PhD and Msc research programmes. This gives a significant advantage to our industry partners when it comes to recruitment - Lero students are often offered high-value research positions with our industry partners immediately on completion of their studies.

What forms do these engagements take?

Collaboration with industry can take several forms. An organisation may commission Lero to undertake research on its behalf - i.e. the organisation pays for the research without assisting in the work. Alternatively, the organisation might open its doors to Lero and allow researchers work in their facility. Here, the organisation would be involved in the research and assign some of their own research staff to the project.

Both Lero and the company can benefit in other ways too. One or more employees might sign up to study for a fourth-level qualification on a part-time basis. Ideally the work these people do in the organisation will form the basis for their studies. Alternatively, the company can sponsor a fourth-level student. That student may or may not work on-site in the organisation, but the sponsored research will be available to the company. If the project is successful, a job offer may be forthcoming.

How is intellectual property managed?

Lero-Industry collaborative research is typically conducted under contracts that are negotiated within the public sector IP guidelines generated by ASCTI and ISCTI and which take into account any specific IP provisions that are imposed by the various funding authorities. More details on Lero's IP policy are available here.

How are industry collaborations funded?

Lero is a government-sponsored research centre and is engaging with industry to improve its research, not to make money. However, it is important that the costs incurred during the engagement - wages/stipends, travel, materials - are recouped. Fortunately, various funding bodies - Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland, for instance - look favourably on such collaborations and are willing to subsidise the costs involved.