LIMERICK Institute of Technology (LIT) is built on collaboration and connectedness with industry.
The institute is unique in Ireland in having an enterprise campus co-located with each of its educational campuses, an aspect of LIT that reflects its emphasis on forging the closest possible links to industry in the region.
Indeed, LIT’s new campus at Coonagh will fuse the educational and industrial aspects of its ethos, with its sole focus on engineering, and its ability to host industrial research alongside education together. The campus will come on stream next year, providing a completely new kind of institutional setting for industry in the region.
The institute has been addressing issues around Brexit for the benefit of industry in the region as well. LIT, together with Ireland’s PTMA, has partnered with Britain’s GTMA – the trade body for precision turned manufacturers there – to host manufacturing Solutions, Ireland’s largest ever Irish/UK Manufacturing Supply Chain Conference and Trade Exhibition earlier this month.
The event is opening new links for manufacturers in the Mid-West into the UK and more broadly. With up to 1,000 attendees, the conference itself was worth up to €250,000 to the region, but its real economic benefit will be realised through the creation of new deals and new relationships for industry here.
The broad range of activities and programmes for industry that LIT carries out are embedded right across the institution.
LIT’s new Strategic Plan 2018-2022 placed industrial collaboration as one of the central tenets of the organisation into the future, with a heavy emphasis on this area in the €150 million capital investment plan that it has now embarked on.
As well as the new engineering-focussed campus at Coonagh, this also includes developments such as a new Applied Science and IT building, new Food and Tourism facilities, new developments at the Limerick School of Art and Design, and other facilities that will have a direct impact on the region’s industrial base.
LIT President, Professor Vincent Cunnane said, “The Mid-West has a history of being to the forefront of innovation in manufacturing and trade. Here at LIT we pride ourselves on being an agile and flexible partner for industry and manufacturing. We can deliver the research, collaboration and skillsets that industry in this region needs. By continuing to invest in these things, LIT is helping to future-proof the region and to sustain the investment in industry and manufacturing that is so central for the region.”
This article is part of the Limerick Post special feature on Mid-West Industry, read more articles and interviews here.
