Tyndall National Institute is a premier Irish ICT research institute. As part of University College Cork, it houses 400 staff and students. It is divided into Microelectronics and Photonics Centres, the latter being the larger of the two. In the photonics centre, Tyndall Institute has a broad expertise: from theory, semiconductor growth and fabrication to systems design, testing and packaging and integration. It operates mainly in the telecommunications and biomedical sectors, however, it is close to the nascent and future technologies.

The Photonic Packaging Group is operating in the Photonics Centre. The group remit covers a wide range of activities related to the packaging of photonic integrated circuits. With 25 members, it has a strong research core that investigates new technologies and processes, including novel materials (e.g. glass substrates), methods (e.g. pluggable photonic devices) and integration methods (utilizing e.g. transfer printing or 3D printing). This expertise is essential to delivery of PIONEAR prototypes as well as securing a viable scalable manufacturing pipeline for resultant devices.