Huawei Set To Invest €80 Million In Boosting Irish R&D

Strengthening Ireland’s reputation as a global innovation hub

In early February 2021, Huawei revealed its plans for an €80 million investment in Irish research and development (R&D), creating a further 110 new jobs in Ireland by the end of 2022. Impressively, this means that between 2019 and 2022 the tech giant will have added at least 310 new jobs to its Irish workforce. The jobs will generally be located at its Dublin headquarters and across operations in Athlone and Cork.

Even during the past 15 months alone, and despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Huawei has already established 200 jobs in the country, injecting €60 million of investment in R&D. The additional €80 million to come will mean the company has in fact doubled its commitment from 2019.

Demand has grown for Huawei’s products over the years, with jobs arising across its sales, IT, R&D, and consumer divisions especially. Despite recent negative media attention around 5G, the company is still strong in its resolve to support its partners in rolling out 5G throughout Ireland in the years ahead. 

The Irish government, through IDA Ireland, offers its full backing

Since 2004, Huawei have built a world-class team servicing ever-expanding consumer and enterprise customer bases. Leo Varadkar, Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, strongly welcomed the news. With COVID-19 still bringing havoc to the economy, the new jobs couldn’t have come at a better time for Ireland.

“Despite all the current uncertainty and challenges, Ireland continues to attract top class investment from global technology companies… I wish the company the best of luck with this expansion”, he said.

Huawei’s activities in Ireland are many and varied, serving all of the major telecommunications providers with business solutions and consumer products. The company’s Chief Executive for Ireland Tony Yangxu was also pleased to confirm the company’s latest recruitment plans. He said: “We are delighted to see such growth in our workforce and business… Our story in Ireland is one of mutual success as we assist with the national digital transformation, and Ireland continues to grow its international reputation as a pro-business environment with great talent available”.

Consumer products that come under the tech giant’s umbrella include smartphones and network equipment for the telecoms industry.

Huawei’s R&D operations in Ireland work closely with Science Foundation Ireland research centres, including Connect, Lero and Adapt. It has also forged strong partnerships with Trinity, DCU, UCD, UL and UCC. Its R&D efforts in the country will continue to focus on the areas of cloud computing, video, site-reliability engineering, artificial intelligence (AI) and 5G operations.

Investing in the future

Already hailed a top employer, in 2020 Huawei devised its worldwide digital inclusion TECH4ALL programme in support of Ocean Research & Conservation Ireland. Huawei Ireland is administering a research grant as well as technological support to ORC Ireland in conducting the first study in real time into how marine traffic impacts whales in Irish waters.

Furthermore, Huawei Ireland also partnered with Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin) and University College Dublin (UCD) to unveil its ‘TECH4HER’ Scholarship Programme. The idea behind the collaboration is to support female students in studying STEM subjects.

Why Ireland is such a draw for tech companies

Ireland has long been considered a hub of business innovation and growth. It also has the added advantage of being part of the European Union, giving companies the chance to reach 500 million-plus potential consumers.

Since joining the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1973, Ireland has enjoyed a wealth of benefits as a member state. There’s a broad range of European R&D grants accessible to domestic companies, not to mention the free movement of people, goods, capital and services. The customs union also means there’s a common external tariff on all goods coming in to the market. Furthermore, the single currency makes trading much easier within the eurozone as there are no concerns about fluctuations in the currency market.

Ireland also has a young, well educated, English-speaking workforce. According to latest CSO statistics, 33.2% of the Irish population is aged under 25. And of course, companies doing business in Ireland can also access to an EU labour pool of nearly 250 million.

Then of course there’s R&D Tax Credits

Irish companies engaging in qualifying R&D projects can claim a 25% tax credit to help with the costs; this is on top of the 12.5% standard rate. In effect, this means as much as €37.50 can be claimed back for every €1 of R&D expenditure - generous indeed.

The R&D activities in question must include investigations and/or experiments in the areas of technology or science, and have involved some financial risk. Essentially, the outcome of the project must not have been clear at the beginning, with the challenges not easily solvable by a professional working in the field.

The award is provided either as a reduction in Corporation Tax or as a cash lump sum for companies recording a loss. It doesn’t even matter if the project was successful or not, and the scheme is open to any company of any size in any sector.

Find out more about R&D Tax Credits in Ireland and how your company can benefit.

The Myriad Associates team can guide you through your claim - and maximise it too

The problem with R&D Tax Credits is that although the scheme is incredibly lucrative, putting a claim together is a real challenge. Not only do you need to know which types of expenditure is eligible and how to apportion it, you’ll need to put together a top class technical report too if your claim is to be successful. Under claiming and over claiming is common, with the latter often drawing negative Revenue repercussions.

This is where our expert specialists come in, as not only will we guide you in constructing your claim but we’ll maximise it for you too. So you know you’re claiming everything your business is entitled to.

Send us a message today to get the ball rolling on your claim. Everything is done remotely with no face-to-face interaction and we’re working as usual during the pandemic. Or if you’d like to talk us through your R&D work, please do give us a call on +353 1 566 2001.