University College Dublin (UCD) and Trinity College Dublin (TCD) have jointly unveiled a visionary job creation plan as part of the national recovery initiative built around the Smart Economy in the presence of An Taoiseach, Mr Brian Cowen T.D.
The TCD / UCD Innovation Alliance is a radical partnership which will work with the education sector, the State and its agencies and the business and venture capital communities to develop a world-class ecosystem for innovation that will drive enterprise development and the creation of sustainable high value jobs.
By forming the Innovation Alliance the universities recognise a need to evolve and play a powerful role within such an ecosystem. TCD Provost Dr John Hegarty and UCD President Dr Hugh Brady said, “This is a time of national crisis. Evidence shows that during recession, innovation thrives. New realities bring with them new opportunities. The Government’s Smart Economy framework pinpointed the ingenuity of our people as the way forward for the country. In that context, as institutions with a relevant responsibility, we felt impelled to act and set out how we could advance the nurturing of that ingenuity.”
The Alliance envisages building a world-class enterprise corridor between TCD and UCD that will be home for up to 300 new enterprises, with advanced technology centres to support indigenous industry. It will be a prototype for a national ecosystem to establish Ireland as an international hub for innovation. It will be similar in concept to the IFSC but focussed on the creation and scaling up of indigenous knowledge and technology-intensive enterprises and the attraction of multinational employers that will become the cornerstone for the knowledge economy.
The cost of realising the Alliance is set at €650 million over 10 years, to be drawn from a combination of sources, including existing planned Government sources, such as SSTI.
Within the universities, work is already underway with the Innovation Academy set to engage with its first students from the existing 4th level streams in both institutions in September of this year.
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