Working with external partners on research and innovation projects has helped Ireland’s Institutes of Technology have a real economic and societal impact, particularly in their local regions.
“IT Tralee hosts two Technology Gateways, Shannon ABC, which supports Irish companies across a range of life sciences projects, and IMaR, which offers expertise in ICT and engineering to Irish companies.” Mac Sweeney adds that “our researchers work with micro businesses right through to MNCs, supporting local and regional enterprises to grow and create new jobs and attracting new skills and expertise into the local region.”
Other examples of enterprise focused regional partnership initiatives at IT Tralee include the BioTech and IAGTech Clusters. These are supported by Enterprise Ireland’s Regional Technology Clustering Fund which promotes engagement between institutes of technology, TUs and SMEs and enterprise at a regional level.In 2019, IT Tralee was awarded about €700,000 in regional technology clustering funding to establish bioeconomy and agritech clusters in the southwest of Ireland.
The ground has been prepared for the establishment of MTU by the long history of research partnership between CIT and IT Tralee. There is significant alignment already in the research activities of the two institutes, as is common across the institute of technology sector. Both institutes are recognised for their strong research and innovation capacity in Stem areas, particularly in working with enterprise.