2023
UCC hosts regional forum with educational and research leaders
Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris TD today welcomed the third in a series of dialogue meetings between senior Department officials and institutional leaders aimed at driving stronger regional collaboration on some of the major challenges facing the country.
Today’s meeting at University College Cork (UCC) for Cork, Limerick, Clare, Tipperary and Kerry is the third of six dialogue meetings taking place around the country over the recent and coming weeks, with Department officials engaging with leaders from the further and higher education, research and innovation sectors on key Government strategies including regional rebalancing, housing, health, climate and enterprise.
Speaking today ahead of the meeting at University College Cork (UCC), Minister Harris said: “We know that the further and higher education, research and innovation sectors are already doing incredible work in these areas, but we want to discover more about the ambitions and plans of our sectors, the challenges that are there and how we can all work together to develop ideas and actions that will work for the region.”
Today’s Southern regional dialogue meeting saw the Department engaging with institutional leaders representing Limerick & Clare ETB, Tipperary ETB, Cork ETB, Kerry ETB, Technological University of the Shannon, Mary Immaculate College, UL, UCC, Munster Technological University and SFI research centres LERO, SSPC, Vista Milk, Insight, APC, MaREI and Ipic. Representatives of SOLAS, SFI and the National Tertiary Office will also be in attendance.
Commenting UCC President, Professor John O’Halloran stated: “We are very pleased to host this important event which places a spotlight on the long standing, deep and far reaching relationships which we share and deeply value and most importantly on the students whose education and research pathways have been enabled as a result of our collaborations.”
The Regional Dialogue Initiative was set up by the Department in response to inputs from the sector highlighting how a unified tertiary sector in regions can contribute to achieving both Department and wider government policy priorities.