Institute gets major boost with €7m R&D projects

WATERFORD Institute of Technology has received a major boost with the signing of contracts for two new projects with a combined value of €7 million.

The first project is part-funded by Enterprise Ireland and the Higher Education Authority’s Programme for Research in Third-Level Institutions (PRTLI), with backing from AIB. It involves the construction by McInerney Contracting of a €5m research, development and innovation centre, which is the first major development on WIT’s 150-acre Carriganore campus.

The centre will offer hi-tech office accommodation for high-potential start-up companies. The centre will also be the new location for the Telecommunications Software & Systems Group (TSSG), one of the most highly regarded research groups in the Irish third-level sector.

WIT chairman Redmond O’Donoghue said he was particularly delighted to sign contracts for the Carriganore project. “The centre at Carriganore represents a great move forward for the institute,” he said. “It is very timely given the increased emphasis that is rightly being placed on developing Ireland’s research, development and innovation capacity ... As a small country that is open to the winds of economic change globally we must focus on intellectual advancement and up-skilling.”

WIT director Professor Kieran R Byrne lauded Enterprise Ireland, the HEA through PRTLI and AIB for their support of the development, which he said will serve the regional and national economy well at a time of tremendous change.

“It is now widely accepted that the goal for Ireland must now be to carve out a niche as a highly skilled country with a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship; a country where new enterprises are fostered carefully through the often fraught start-up stage and given the supports they require to make major breakthroughs.

“There is, of course, an added importance for the institute to this development given that it represents the start of the roll-out of our ambitious plans for the Carriganore campus, which will be increasingly the focus of our attention in the coming period.”

Enterprise Ireland’s Michael McGuire said the centre tied in well with Enterprise Ireland’s strategy for 2005-2007 launched by Enterprise, Trade and Employment Minister Micheál Martin on May 4.

“Our strategy commits us to generating in excess of 200 new high-potential start-ups over the next three years and this new campus innovation centre will play a key role in ensuring that Waterford, and indeed the south-east region, will account for a significant number of these start-ups.”