Fugro Invests in Ireland Photonics R&D Centre

Through FAZTech Research Ltd, a company majority owned by Fugro, a photonics R&D centre has been built up in Dublin which has quickly grown to currently employ around 25 staff.

A Fugro senior management team led by Fugro’s CEO Paul van Riel met with Irish Minister Joan Burton TD and senior management of the Irish Development Agency led by CEO Barry O’Leary to discuss Fugro’s investment programme to create an R&D facility in the Republic of Ireland.

The company expects rapid development in the area of optical and photonic technology for sensing and measurement applications and solutions, and foresees further strong growth for the centre as a result.

Fugro say that Research and development is of strategic importance to them, as their global market position is, to a large extent, dependent on the use of high-value equipment, technologies and software. (Fugro collects, processes and interprets data related to the earth's surface and the soils and rocks beneath and provides advice based on the results to clients in many sectors, including offshore energy exploitation).

Fugro is investing and supporting FAZTech Research Ltd as its global centre for the development of next generation optical and photonic technology for sensing to measure a range of physical parameters such a temperature, pressure, flow and strain. Sensing technology is critical to Fugro and the proposed technology development represents a step change and a major shift away from current mechanical and electronic technology.

The applications of this research is intended to offer competitive advantage in energy, infrastructure, and marine transportation industries. It is expected that further research will open up opportunities in other markets.