Three new Gateway centres focused on pharmaceuticals, mobile services and materials engineering are to be located at WIT, it was announced this week.
Enterprise Ireland has allocated funding of up to €4 million for the three Waterford centres as part of a national Technology Gateway programme to boost research and development.
Overall, the programme represents a €23 million investment by Enterprise Ireland over the next five years.
The Technology Gateway Network was formally launched by Minister Sean Sherlock in Limerick on Monday.
The funding will be used to provide an easier point of access for industries who wish to collaborate with the institutions, with three out of the 12 Gateway centres to be located at WIT.
The three local centres are all part of the Technology Gateway Network.
They are: the South Eastern Applied Materials (SEAM) Gateway, a nationwide resource for industry based in the IoTs delivering solutions on near to market problems for industrial partners;
the Pharmaceutical & Molecular Biotechnology Research Centre (PMBRC) Gateway, which delivers delivering solutions for industry in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors in areas such as drug delivery, process technology, biotechnology, biomedical and separation science and
the Mobile Services Tecnhology Gateway which delivers solutions to industry in mobile services primarily for smart phones and tablets.
Kathryn Kiely, Manager of Industry services at WIT, says the Gateway programme will “ultimately lead to job creation”.
