The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD has announced details of the €1.2m initial research programme in the Cloud Computing Technology Research Centre.

The funding will be allocated over 12 months to a consortium of Higher Education Institutions to carry out the initial research programme of Centre.

The research consortium which is to be led by Dublin City University and includes University College Cork, Athlone Institute of Technology and with the Innovation Value Institute at NUIM, will use the funding through Enterprise Ireland to work with a group of software companies to establish ways to generate business and profit from cloud computing.

The four principal areas into which research will be carried out are: Cloud computing technology architecture, including design, configuration and operation; service management; business research; and cloud security.