In coincidence with reports that the Irish Government will make an initial investment of _1million in the Centre for Applied Data Analytics Research CeADAR - a new Dublin technology centre in data analytics -, tech giants EMC and SAS have announced a partnership with the Irish Management Institute (IMI) and University College Cork (UCC) for creating a new master's degree in data business as well as a diploma in data business.

The key focus areas of the new master's degree and diploma courses in data business will include the increasing role which is played by the combination of data, technology, data, innovation, business models, economics, strategic data management, and analytics, for ensuring the success of an organisation.

The new master's degree programme in data business will chiefly help close a technology skills gap which will result from the projections that while the number of servers and information managed by enterprise data centres will grow 10 times and 14 times respectively by 2020, the number of IT professionals will likely grow by a factor of less than 1.5.

To cover this technology gap, the master's degree program of study will largely educate business and IT leaders on the different ways for leveraging big data and advancing analytics to generate new insights which can fuel growth.

Announcing the new programmes, Richard Bruton TD - Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation - said: "A key part of the Government's plans for jobs and growth is our ambition to make Ireland a leading country for big data."