TU Dublin Welcomes Funding Announcement By Ministers McHugh and Humphreys
Technological University Dublin has welcomed today’s announcement by Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys TD and Minister for Education and Skills Joe McHugh TD concerning the Regional Technology Clustering Fund, the first annual competitive fund of its kind.
The €4.6 million fund provides a platform for engagement between enterprise and regionally-based academic institutions – the Institutes of Technology (IoT) and Technological Universities (TU) – in order to drive productivity and competitiveness in and across the regions. The fund aligns with the Future Jobs Ireland framework and the Regional Enterprise Plans by building on regional strengths and supporting the expansion of Irish exporting businesses.
The clustering activity will enable IoTs and TUs to connect and engage with SMEs and multinational corporations in a strategic way on common areas of interest while providing a means to increase their educational and research remit as knowledge providers in their region. IOTs and TUs have an important role to play in helping companies to respond to the skills challenges faced by SMEs and to assist companies to enhance their capability to win business in international markets.
TU Dublin has received funding in construction, a strategically important sector for economic growth and employment in Ireland. The proposed project seeks to address current fragmentation with the development of the first national Construction Sector Cluster (positioned as part of the Design & Construct at Broombridge).
TU Dublin is Ireland’s largest provider of education and skills to the Architecture, Engineering and Construction sector with over 7,500 undergraduate and postgraduate students, 1,000 trade apprentices and 120 doctoral students. Design & Construct is TU Dublin’s response to the critical skills shortages and challenges facing the construction sector. It will be a national centre of excellence for multidisciplinary and collaborative education, research and industry engagement for the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector in Ireland. Broombridge will, for the first time in Ireland, unite all AEC disciplines allowing the industry to address challenges and innovate to maintain competitiveness both nationally and internationally.
Announcing the successful applicants of the fund in Trim, Co Meath, Minister Heather Humphreys TD said: “Strengthening collaboration between industry leaders and Higher Education Institutions is a key priority for Government as we work to ensure we have balanced regional development.
“The funding very much complements the core ambitions of Future Jobs Ireland, which in 2020 will have clustering as a key theme. It includes projects that embrace innovation and technological change, improve SME productivity, help to build our skills base and assist with our transition to a low carbon economy. It is this kind of innovative funding that will ensure we remain competitive and well-placed to grow and prosper in a rapidly changing global economy.’”
Minister for Education and Skills Joe McHugh TD said: “I am extremely keen to see more regional options being opened to school leavers. There is a huge pool of talented, knowledgeable and experienced people in our enterprises, and they are willing to bring on the next generation. Funding these clusters is essential to get the partnerships to bed down and create opportunities for students to plot a career path and enterprise and industry to grow.”
Jerry Moloney, Regional Director, Enterprise Ireland, who administer the Fund for the Department, said: “When Enterprise Ireland published its ‘Powering the Regions’ strategy earlier this year, we placed a major emphasis on attracting high quality, collaborative projects that had the potential to form successful clusters.
“This has been a competitive process that attracted many interesting project proposals from Institutes of Technology and Technological Universities nationwide. Our nine Regional Response Teams are confident that the twelve successful projects announced today will go on to ignite innovation in their regions and enhance the capabilities of indigenous businesses to win business in global markets and drive the creation of cluster entities in these key sectors.”
More information about the Regional Technology Clustering Fund is available here.