Research & Innovation

Minister for Education and Skills, Joe McHugh TD and Minister for Finance and Public Reform, Paschal Donohoe TD recently visited Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin) for the topping-out ceremony of the Central Quad on the TU Dublin flagship campus at Grangegorman. From September 2020, there will be more than 10,000 students and 600 staff on campus.

Speaking at the ceremony, the President of TU Dublin, Professor David FitzPatrick said: “This wonderful Central Quad – built around the courtyard where we are standing, and next to this now-famous copper beech tree – is a €100 million investment in the education of our current students and those who will follow them. Together with the East Quad just opposite us, it represents an investment of over €250 million in what will be an exceptional campus for TU Dublin, here in the middle of Dublin City, and the largest single education project under Project Ireland 2040.”

Commenting on the opportunities that the campus will create, Professor FitzPatrick said: “To deliver on our mission and to do full justice to the ambitions of our students, it is vital to have facilities that support their learning. Students who will study here from next September will benefit from working in laboratories, kitchens and lecture spaces with up-to-the-minute facilities and technology. They will gain expertise that will ensure they can make a valuable contribution in key areas of the economy – in food science and innovation, pharmaceutical and nutraceuticals, health and environment, tourism and hospitality.”

“Colleagues from a wide range of disciplines will also come together, in the Central Quad and the neighbouring East Quad, for the first time on one campus. They will have opportunities to create new synergies between disciplines and exciting new opportunities for research. They will interact with the researchers, innovators and entrepreneurs based right beside us in the Greenway Hub; and their students will have the role models, the facilities, and the encouragement to pursue their own research or perhaps to develop their own spin-out companies.”

Professor FitzPatrick concluded: “As President, and on behalf of TU Dublin, I am immensely proud to oversee our move from Kevin Street, Cathal Brugha Street and Rathmines, which have been familiar Dublin landmarks over the last one hundred years.  Now we are preparing for the transition to what will be our flagship campus for the next one hundred years.”

Positioned at the heart of the new campus development, the Central Quad will provide excellent facilities for students on programmes in the sciences and health, electrical and electronic engineering, culinary arts and hospitality. Students and staff will re-locate from Kevin Street, Cathal Brugha Street and Sackville Place by the end of this academic year. Meanwhile, the East Quad in Grangegorman is being prepared for the arrival next year of students of music, drama, media, law, social science and the creative arts. Facilities will include studios and exhibition areas, a 400-seater concert hall, recital rooms, black box theatre, and film and broadcasting amenities.

CAPTION:

Pictured (left to right): Minister Joe McHugh TD, President of TU Dublin, Professor David FitzPatrick and Minister Paschal Donohoe TD.