Walton Institute at SETU Waterford granted €1m in funding for AI expansion
Dr Deirdre Kilbane and Dr Lizy Abraham pictured in the Walton Institue's data centre
The Walton Institute at SETU has been granted over €1 million in Government funding to aid the development of the Walton AI facility- an advanced AI and high-performance computing platform.
The Walton Institute focuses on Information and Communications Technologies research and has operated on SETU’s West Campus for over 25 years.
The new AI facility is poised to help significantly expand the institute’s existing data centre and connect to other European research infrastructures. It will be capable of delivering up to 100 times computing capacity while improving energy efficiency.
The investment was part of a wider €17m package announced by Minister for Higher Education James Lawless.
This funding strengthens our ability to build strong research collaborations that support industry and public sector partners in adopting AI with confidence,” said Dr Deirdre Kilbane, Director of Research at Walton Institute.
“By combining advanced infrastructure with fundamental and applied research, we can help organisations move from early-stage ideas to practical deployment, while also building AI skills and capacity across the region.”
The investment was framed as crucial in courting business with a growing appetite for AI infrastructure, as well as bolstering Ireland’s growing use of data centres as a key economic pillar.
The Walton AI Facility will act as a shared resource for researchers, SMEs, industry and public sector organisations and help enable large-scale AI model training, real-time data analysis and applied research across a multitude of sectors.
