ATU President warmly welcomes substantial funding announcement 

Atlantic Technological University (ATU) welcomed yesterday’s announcement by Minister for Education, Simon Harris TD, that they will receive substantial funding under the TU RISE initiative.

The announcement, comes as part of an €84 million investment in Technological Universities, aims to bolster research and innovation within the TU sector. 

President of Atlantic Technological University, Dr Orla Flynn, welcomed the Minister's announcement and acknowledged the significance of the funding, saying the allocation ‘very much underlines ATU's commitment to advancing research and innovation across the Northern and Western region’.  

ATU is being allocated €19.6 million under the programme, which aims to establish, equip, and staff regional research and innovation offices within TU's to enable deepened engagement with local and regional business, industry, and enterprise stakeholders. 

The funding will also be directed at developing research in human capital in the technological sector, including staff development, recruitment, postgraduate training and supervision, networking, and collaborative knowledge-transfer and mobility schemes. 

Cathaoirleach of the Northern and Western Regional Assembly, Cllr John Naughten, called this opportunity ‘fantastic’ saying it’s ‘another positive instance of European Funding’. 

The initiative is delivered by EU co-funded Regional Programmes to assist the technological sector in ‘enhanced engagement with businesses and stakeholders in the regions’. 

He explained that this funding will help ‘develop much needed research in human capital’  which is one of the most pressing challenges facing the Northern and Western region’.

“The funding is extremely welcome, and provides ATU with the resources to develop our own capacity, foster collaborations and grow our research community,” added Ms Flynn.

Minister Harris said technological universities ‘are uniquely placed’ to link with local and regional enterprises, ‘to support them to turn innovation opportunities into real-world actuality’. 

The education Minister said the significant research-oriented funding will further ensure that Ireland will be recognised as a ‘world-leader in Research and Innovation for years to come’.

 TU RISE is co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Union through the Southern, Eastern & Midland and the Northern & Western Regional Programmes, 2021-27.

Dr Alan Wall, Chief Executive of the Higher Education Authority, which manages the operations of the TU RISE scheme, said this funding comes at a ‘critical juncture in the development of the technological sector’. 

“The HEA conceived, designed and will manage this investment to support our TUs contribution to a bottom-up, place-based, dynamic process which brings together regional and national actors to link Ireland’s regional needs and potential with innovative policymaking” he concluded.