About Tyndall National Institute

Tyndall National Institute is an international leader in semiconductors, photonics and deep-tech research and innovation. As a leading collaborative European research institute, Tyndall is a key actor and pilot line hosting partner in the delivery of the ‘Chips for Europe Initiative’ (EU Chips Act).

Tyndall is Ireland’s leading research and innovation organisation and it is the national focal point for semiconductor related research, development and graduate training in support of ‘Silicon Island’, Ireland’s national semiconductor strategy. Tyndall is recognised as an international research leader in nanotechnology, microelectronics, photonics, electronics and AI semiconductor, chip and digital technologies, particularly as applied to the fields of Information & Communications, Health & Life Sciences, Agritech & Food Security, Energy and Climate Mitigation,  emerging fields such as quantum, and novel computing paradigms.

Tyndall is a critical national research resource and a key national research infrastructure for Ireland. The Institute was established in 2004 as a strategic partnership between the Irish Government and University College Cork (UCC) as a development of the National Microelectronics Research Centre (NMRC) which was established in 1982.

The Institute’s key objective is to see frontier research activities having a significant impact on economic development and societal challenges in Ireland, Europe and beyond. Central to Tyndall’s mission is delivering economic impact through research excellence in partnership with industry and academia. With an annual turnover of €60m, the Institute has a community of over 700 researchers, engineers, services staff, postgraduate students, interns and industry researchers-in-residence.

Significant progress has been made against the ambitious goals set out in the last strategic plan (Tyndall 2025) and the foundations have been laid for a new strategy that will see even greater achievements up to and beyond 2030.

With significant committed Irish government support, Tyndall will grow to be 1,000 people by 2030, with approximately 750 researchers, including 250 PhD students. A new 17,000 m2 research building is under development adjacent to the Cork headquarters and there are developing plans to expand Tyndall’s existing Dublin research labs and to establish other research sites within Ireland.

Tyndall’s expansion is also supported by recent national and EU funding wins for significant (M€10’s) additional research equipment across a range of areas such as semiconductor processing, microscopy, quantum technologies, heterogeneous integration, ultra-high speed optical communications and RF through THz characterisation. A substantial research start-up package is available for successful candidates.

UCC Futures: Quantum and Photonics

The first quantum revolution of the 20th century charted the development of semiconductors, transistors, lasers and, from there, computers and the internet. The coming second quantum revolution will transform our lives as dramatically as these first- generation technologies and will solve key challenges of the future.

UCC Futures – Quantum & Photonics is an innovative multidisciplinary team, building on the powerful synergies of our globally renowned quantum and photonics research in the Schools of Physics, Engineering and Tyndall National Institute. We are pushing the limits of the quantum and photonic technological frontier – a key element of this second quantum revolution.

UCC Futures – Quantum & Photonics will drive a generational change across multiple sectors, including quantum computing, data transfer, quantum metrology, sensing, quantum matter, healthcare, environment, energy and communications to deliver transformational progress, enhancing daily living while generating novel and disruptive solutions to some of the most important global issues of our time.