Fidelity Investments Ireland is ramping up its academic collaborations, with a strong focus on Galway, as part of a broader strategy to drive technological innovation and build future-ready talent pipelines. Through expanded collaborations with institutions like the University of Galway, the company is investing in cutting-edge research in areas such as natural language processing (NLP ), knowledge graphs, spatial computing, and human-computer interaction.
Peter Hubbert, director of research, development and innovation at Fidelity Ireland, sees these collaborations as key to unlocking technologies and introducing fresh ways of thinking. “When you engage with academia, you’re bringing that outside thinking into the organisation,” he explained. “Academics engage in deep research. They’re not always focused on rushing to create a product, and that depth complements our in-house tech teams, who bring a different kind of expertise.”
A standout example of this collaboration is Fidelity’s work with researchers at the University of Galway, particularly in the area of natural language processing (NLP ). Hubbert highlighted the importance of this research in helping machines understand and process human language. “We’ve done a lot of work with researchers at University of Galway around NLP, how AI platforms can interpret the written or spoken word,” he said.
These academic partnerships are far from one-sided. According to Hubbert, researching performing organisations also benefit by applying their theoretical research to real-world problems. “Often companies have to work within business constraints,” he said. “Academic collaboration allows us to explore those challenges in a way that might not be possible internally, where teams are focused on the here and now. It helps us get ahead of the curve with a deeper understanding.”
In Galway, this collaboration extends beyond technology and into the realm of societal impact.
Hubbert emphasised the broader value of these efforts, saying, “One of the benefits of academic collaboration is building that local talent pipeline and contributing to the region’s innovation ecosystem,” he said. “We’re often working with postdoctoral researchers and PhD students, engaging with top talent early and giving them insight into industry challenges, like business constraints that don’t always exist in academia.”
That relationship between academic freedom and business pragmatism, according to Hubbert, is what makes the collaboration so effective. “Academia can often follow their curiosity, which lets them explore areas we couldn’t typically investigate in-house. By working together, we get to explore those areas and then see how we can apply the findings within our operational framework.”
Looking ahead, Fidelity Ireland is diving deeper into human-computer interaction research, working closely with academic institutions such as University of Galway to understand not only what this technology can do, but how people use it.
“It feels like every morning there’s something new,” Hubbert said. “Academic researchers are able to study human behaviour in ways we can’t naturally do in-house, and that will guide us.”
At its core, Fidelity’s strategy is about pushing the boundaries of what’s possible by bringing different perspectives into the same room. “When you engage with academic researchers, they make you think differently, and I’d like to think our tech teams make them think differently as well,” said Hubbert.
“By bringing those two opposing views into one room together and allowing them to bounce ideas off each other, it explores different avenues. As a result, it opens up the opportunity for true innovation to thrive.”
