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NearForm Research - new Open Source Software R&D hub

Dedicated team established to deliver major new advancements in open source software

We are proud to announce the official launch of our R&D hub, NearForm Research, to further build on our existing commitment and contributions to the growth in Open Source Software. The move follows the company’s long-standing active involvement in the creation of advanced Open Source software and its importance to the global enterprise market and associated economic growth.   CEO and co-founder Cian Ó’Maidín is an active advocate of developer contributions for open source sustainability and NearForm already sponsors many of the world’s most popular web and IOT frameworks and performance tools, investing time and resources into developing and giving back to the open source community . They are currently the largest contributor to the fastest growing open source project, Node.js. The establishment of a dedicated R&D unit further reinforces this commitment.

The starting team of 8 specialist engineers in the newly-formed hub will initially be dedicated to researching & developing major new functionality for Node.js in the areas of performance and security, along with advancements in IOT and Machine Learning. Further out they will be creating revolutionary new runtimes and tools that have the capability to power everything from the smallest devices to the largest P2P networks.

NearForm Research is supported by funding from Enterprise Ireland , in recognition of the collaborative nature of their projects, connecting technology and enterprise development and delivering on the advancement of innovation & skills in the local region. The funding has enabled NearForm to establish a dedicated team to drive forward the important work in creating a sustainable open source future for economic growth, contributing revolutionary improvements that will benefit enterprise community world-over.

““NearForm is an excellent example of an innovative company with global ambition and Enterprise Ireland is delighted to support its R&D hub ‘NearForm Research’. This is a significant step for the company to execute on its Technology Roadmap and drive future revenue growth. We look forward to working with the company as it grows and expands in international markets,” said Carol Gibbons, Divisional Manager, ICT, Enterprise Ireland.”

Commenting on the announcement, James Snell Head of NearForm Research added:

““We are thrilled to be able to make this an official program within NearForm. We can now combine our experience in developing software solutions for some of the world’s leading brands with our in-depth knowledge and understanding of the languages and tools. We are already working on some significant projects such as HTTP/3, the 3rd major version of the transfer protocol used to exchange information on the internet. We are also working with our wider ecosystem to build more secure runtimes for the financial services market and to enhance the available diagnostic tools to help developers improve performance of their software code. Our work will help to speed up some of these advancements in technology and ensure they are enterprise-grade.””
““These initial foundational building blocks that we are creating will continue to position us as the leaders in defining the next generation of the enterprise web platform. As the definition of the web extends out far beyond browsers and mobile, we are perfectly placed to show how sustainable OSS, open platforms and privacy-first ML are the approaches everyone should be embracing. Having the support of Enterprise Ireland in this first phase of NearForm Research is very important for the company. Enterprise Ireland has always shown strong interest in all of our activities and we look forward to extending the relationship in the coming years.””

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