Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics is worth €593m to the Irish economy according to a new report about the impact of the centre.

The report which was commissioned to coincide with the launch of Insight’s second research phase found that the initial SFI investment of €43m in the centre has had a major impact on the Irish economy.

Scientific excellence has been high on the agenda with Insight researchers generating in excess of 2,000 publications. Insight has also had 72 licence agreements which accounts for a full 12 per cent of all Irish research performing organization licenses generated. Insight members have also participated in a total of 86 EU projects.

The Centre has produced a total of 11 spin out companies, and it has 121 collaborative research agreements with 89 industry partners.  Insight members have also won a total of 93 Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Awards.

The report also found that since opening its doors in 2013, for every one euro of state investment, Insight has generated €5.54 back to the Irish economy.

CEO Professor Noel O’Connor (pictured) said, “Over the last 6 years we have repaid in spades the faith placed in us by SFI, the Dept and ultimately the tax payer… Fundamentally, Insight is about transforming lives, businesses and society by empowering better decisions. We do this by advancing the state of the art in Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and related disciplines to unlock knowledge from raw data. Given the potentially transformative effect our technologies can have on society, we recognise the importance of ensuring that citizens are at the heart of what we do.”