Government plans 5 million euros technical center for construction research consortium

The building technology center, based in NUI Galway, will join eight other engineering centers across the country operated by IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland.

NUI Galway will be the foundation for a planned construction engineering center that will accelerate research and innovation within the construction and built environment sector.

The government announced today (July 21) that it will inject €5 million in funding into the center’s creation. The financing is spread over a period of five years.

Once operational, the center will involve a consortium of researchers from NUI Galway, as well as Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin and University College Cork. The consortium will work closely with the Irish Green Building Council.

The researchers’ work will be organized under five pillars to address the pressing areas of productivity, affordability and cost, quality and safety, sustainability skills, and training and collaboration.

Announcing the project, Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Leo Varadkar, said: “This new construction technology center will ensure that we are at the forefront of new developments in the sector, ensuring that Irish businesses and taxpayers get the best price. quality ratio, while building this important infrastructure in the most modern and efficient way.”

Varadkar added that the government has invested billions in building new infrastructure. The center would contribute to these investment plans, he said. “We ensure that a wide range of academics, skilled artisans, industry experts and opinion leaders feed the center’s work so that when companies come for advice, they receive accurate, up-to-date information informed by broad industry expertise. ”

Enterprise Ireland partnered with professional services firm Ernst & Young to develop the specification for the center. They engaged with key companies, stakeholders, national and international experts to identify the needs of the construction industry for the future. The new center aims to focus on housing in line with the government’s housing strategy.

Prof. dr. Jamie Goggins and Dr Magdalena Hajdukiewicz, the center’s heads of NUI Galway, said the consortium would bring “the entire value chain together to accelerate people-centric innovation in construction and the built environment, enabling industry to increase capacity and competitiveness and a sustainable society and economy at the same time.”

The center will join eight other technology centers across the country. These centers employ a total of 320 researchers. They are part of a joint initiative of IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland that has been going on for 12 years. In that time, researchers have collaborated with thousands of companies.

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