The State is to invest €460 million to set up seven advanced tech research centres under a new national research network, Minister for Further and Higher Education James Lawless has said.The national research network, to be labelled Rinn, will focus on the fields of advanced therapies, artificial intelligence (AI), energy, medical devices, pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceutics, quantum computing and semiconductors.The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science said the allocation will fund 577 research positions and create 800 PhD positions.The network will involve 17 institutions including Trinity College Dublin (TCD), Dublin City University (DCU), University College Dublin, University College Cork, Ireland’s technological universities and the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland.As well as universities, the research network will include the Cork-based Tyndall National Institute information communications technology research lab and the Belfield-based National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training.DCU’s Prof Noel O’Connor will head the Rinn Artificial Intelligence research centre, which is set to receive €121.8 million in funding and will be co-ordinated by five of the State’s largest universities.TCD will co-ordinate the centre focusing on advanced therapies, which is set to get €51.1 million in funding.The Rinn research centre specialising in Ireland’s main foreign export, the pharmaceutical sector, will be set up at a cost of €60.3 million. It will be co-ordinated by the University of Limerick.The Rinn Semiconductors centre will get an allocation of €71 million and drive research into semiconductor systems.[ Graduate to professional: 10 organisations offering paid programmes in IrelandOpens in new window ]Rinn Energy has been awarded €51.8 million in research funding; Rinn Medical Devices will be allocated nearly €64.5 million; and a research centre specialising in quantum computing will get €39.6 million.Announcing the funding, the Minister said the research network would receive an additional €500 million in industry funding.This would be comprised of more than 200 industry partners, including more than 100 multinational corporations and nearly 100 small and medium sized businesses.Lawless described the “scale and scope” of the research funding as a “powerful statement of Ireland’s ambition in research and innovation”.He said the seven Rinn research centres would contribute to “attracting foreign direct investment” and would advance the growth of indigenous industries in key areas. The investment, the Minister said, would help to keep Ireland competitive internationally.The department said a “rigorous, multi-stage evaluation process by independent international experts” took place before the announcement. The seven centres will start activities on July 1st.