Recently, the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris TD, announced €13.6 million in TU RISE funding for Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin) to directly support enterprises in Dublin and the Eastern & Midlands Region.
TU RISE is co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund. The award will amplify TU Dublin’s capacity to support enterprises in the region in developing new products and processes, providing these enterprises with a competitive advantage. Over the project’s lifetime (2024 to 2028), TU Dublin will engage with over 200 enterprises inthe Eastern & Midlands region and will create specialist enterprise engagement teams that will provide enterprises with access to a range of research expertise, including in the Biopharma, Agritech, Financial Services and Creative and Cultural sectors.
Welcoming the Minister’s announcement, Dr Brendan Jennings, Vice President for Research & Innovation, said, “Ireland’s technological universities were created to support the sustainable economic growth of our regions. TU Dublin is already very active in knowledge transfer to the enterprise sector, having completed 550+ collaborative projects with industry and signed 250 license agreements for innovations created by our research and innovation community. Our TU RISE project ARISE will increase our capacity to engage with enterprises in our region, giving them more opportunities to leverage the benefits of R&D activity.”
In line with the prioritisation in the Eastern & Midlands Region Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy, TU Dublin’s engagements with enterprises will be focussed on the following sectors:
- Biopharma, Life Sciences and Medical Technologies,
- Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering,
- Food, Agritech, Bioeconomy and Sustainability,
- ICT and Financial Services,
- Audio-visual, Creative and Cultural.
Continuing, Dr Brendan Jennings said, “In supporting businesses in these sectors, TU RISE enterprise support teams will make a concerted effort to identify and support indigenous enterprises that are led by women, by people with disabilities, and by people from minority backgrounds.”
In this announcement, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris TD said “I am very pleased to announce, with the assistance of the European Regional Development Fund, the allocation of almost €84 million in funding to our five TUs as well as to Dundalk Institute of Technology and Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology. “The Technological Universities are uniquely placed to link with local and regional enterprises, particularly Small and Medium Enterprises, to support them to turn innovation opportunities into real-world actuality. “TUs are catalysts of regional development and support the skills and employment agendas regionally and nationally. This significant research-oriented funding will further enhance their capacity in this regard, ensuring that as a nation Ireland will be recognised as a world-leader in Research and Innovation for years to come.”
