14 Jul 2006

Ireland's Top Research Universities move towards greater collaboration

Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and University College Cork (UCC), as the two leading research universities in Ireland, have identified a number of research areas in which they have complementary strengths and wish to develop these areas in tandem to ensure maximum intellectual, educational and economic benefits of the two universities in national and international terms.

This development comes at a time of unprecedented investment by the State in research. Conscious of the need to deliver value for money, UCC's President,  Professor Gerard Wrixon, and TCD's Provost, Dr John  Hegarty, have agreed that their respective institutions should work together to deliver greater efficiency at fourth level, focusing on the areas of science and technology in the first instance.

"We see this as the first step on the road to increased collaboration between all universities on the island, moving from competition to collaboration through multiple partnerships across the entire academic spectrum, from the humanities to the sciences" said TCD's Provost, Dr John  Hegarty.

"It doesn't make sense for us to do exactly the same things," said UCC's President, Professor Gerard Wrixon, "we are a small country competing in an increasingly competitive global market for research."   Citing their successful collaboration in nanotechnology over the past five years, Professor Wrixon noted that UCC and TCD have worked extremely effectively together, making significant but complementary investments in infrastructure at the Tyndall National Institute in Cork and the CRANN centre in Dublin.

"In some fields, such as nanotechnology, we are both strong," added TCD's Provost, Dr John Hegarty.  "In others, one of us will take the lead and the other work in partnership. For example, UCC is an international leader in Food and Health, TCD in Neuroscience."

The two institutions each recognise areas of strength in the other and agree to support complementary developments under appropriate national and international initiatives.

In addition to the research themes identified above, UCC and TCD will also collaborate in the implementation of institutional research strategies, management information systems, benchmarking, institutional repositories, technology transfer initiatives, and in the procurement of equipment and materials for research.

The universities will also exploit opportunities for the introduction of joint postgraduate programmes at masters and PhD levels and will work to develop a system of credit recognition that facilitates the transfer of students between the institutions.

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