Work set to start on €3m research centre in Clonmel

Work is to start on a €3m research and development centre in Clonmel early next year.

Contracts have been signed for the project — a collaboration between South Tipperary County Council and Limerick Institute of Technology — which is aimed at boosting new businesses as well as research and development programmes.

It is hoped the 1,400 square-metre facility, to be located just west of Clonmel in the Ballingarrane development campus, will open in the middle of 2014. The development will include research laboratories, conference and meeting rooms, and training rooms.

The contractors are local company Clancy Construction, while the design is by RKD Architects.

“Santa has come early to Clonmel and south Tipperary,” was how local county councillor Siobhán Ambrose described the news. “This now means that new and existing indigenous businesses in this area will have an opportunity to avail of these facilities,” she said.

“It also means that outside small businesses will have an opportunity to rent out meeting, training or conference rooms should they wish to do so.”

The site is adjacent to Ballingarrane House, which has been revamped and is due to become a “one-stop-shop” for enterprise and development in south Tipperary. A 320-hectare piece of land around Ballingarrane was bought by the county council some years ago, with some of it sold on to the IDA.

There is now a focus on fostering enterprise in the area, in conjunction with Limerick Institute of Technology and its Clonmel campus.

“It is hoped that, with the college next door, that this new facility will also support new graduates with specialisation in the sciences area to avail of these facilities,” Ms Ambrose said.

The approval of work on the project, she said, “sends out a clear message that Clonmel and south Tipperary are very supportive of new and existing research and development projects”.