Seagate invest £4m in new R&D project

Seagate Technology (Ireland) is to invest £4 million in a new R&D project at its Springtown plant in Londonderry.

The company hope that the investment will position its Northern Ireland operation at the centre of the US corporation's global research into new digital storage technologies.

Making the announcement, during a visit to the company’s Springtown plant, Enterprise Minister Ian Pearson, revealed that Invest NI would be providing £1.38 million under the START Programme towards the total costs of the project. START is funded by the European Union and Invest NI.

The Minister said: "This expansion of Springtown’s R&D capability follows the company’s recent decision to establish a Centre of Excellence at its Limavady plant to develop state-of-the-art production and inspection processes to facilitate the use of new substrate technology for hard disc drives.

"Seagate reinforces the important contribution of US investment and industry to Derry, reflected in the diversity of major US corporations in the regions, including DuPont and Raytheon."

"It is, furthermore, a tremendous boost for our Regional Innovation Strategy which seeks to establish Northern Ireland as an international R&D centre and for Invest NI’s drive to promote innovation as a pivotal business activity."

Seagate’s Springtown facility began manufacturing thin film wafers for recording heads used in computer disc drives in 1994. The Limavady operation, Seagate Technology Media (Ireland) was established in 1996 to process aluminium substrates for disc drives.

(MB)