IBM IS to invest €7 million through the opening of a new centre of excellence for water management at its Dublin campus.

The facility, which will create 18 jobs, will focus on research and development of products and services for monitoring, managing and forecasting environmental issues, such as the movement of pollutants in fresh water, coastal areas and oceans.

The Dublin centre will partner with universities and research institutes, as well as local companies that have expertise in the area.

One of its first projects is a collaboration with the Marine Institute on its SmartBay project, which is taking place in Galway Bay.

"The water skills in the universities and the Marine Institute complement IBM's IT skills," said Sharon Nunes, the IBM executive who heads up its Big Green environmental initiative. "The centre will develop technology that can solve critical problems, generate revenues for IBM and its partners, and generate jobs for Ireland."

Ms Nunes said the centre had been in planning for eight to nine months and was a good example of IBM's approach to "collaborative innovation".

Eoin Sweeney, programme manager for the Marine Institute's Discovery initiative, welcomed the opening of the centre and said it tied in with the national Sea Change strategy for the maritime sector.

IBM has made a number of recent investments in RD in Ireland, most recently announcing that a European centre for cloud computing would be based here.