Supporting collaboration and co-creation across the talent development pipeline

Convene is an ambitious five-year collaborative project funded by the Irish Government’s Human Capital Initiative under Pillar III - Innovation and Agility. Through Convene, dedicated teams at Technological University Dublin and University College Dublin are exploring new ways that academia and enterprise can work more closely together to meet priority and emerging skills needs. We are working to address both culture change and system change within Irish higher education to increase our agility and make it easier for enterprise to engage with us.

Convene can play an important role in helping to rebuild our society and economy differently; to fully embrace the digital age and take urgent action in response to our climate and biodiversity crises.

— Taoiseach Micheál Martin

As a collaboration between Ireland’s two largest universities, there is tremendous potential for impact. Our partnership demonstrates the synergies between a research-intensive university and a Technological University within a regional innovation ecosystem, a dynamic that relevant to Cork, Limerick and Galway in Ireland as well as other areas in the EU and across the world.

Convene was awarded funding under the Human Capital Initiative’s Pillar III – Innovation and Agility – and it is fantastic to see TU Dublin supporting the project by creating a long-term structure to transform their engagement with enterprise. It’s essential to the future of universities that they not just collaborate with industry, but that enterprise partnerships are strong, inclusive and enduring and inform a culture of lifelong learning for our society.

— Vivienne Patterson, Head of Skills & Engagement, Higher Education Authority

At TU Dublin, the Enterprise Academy has been established to support enterprise in their talent development efforts and learning strategies. The Enterprise Academy offers a single point of contact for enterprise to access TU Dublin’s dynamic skills and learning ecosystem. Sector Conveners, a new role within higher education, offer deep sectoral expertise and knowledge of academic systems and processes to broker and support the development of accredited programmes and pathways with faculties. Our work is informed by the latest research and skills intelligence, as well as next-practice frameworks in cross-cutting themes such as mentoring, transversal skills and work-based learning.

I urge Convene to continue pushing boundaries, challenging our thinking, and transforming how higher education and enterprise work together.”