Dundalk institute's €3.7 million for Connect project

The Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys, has confirmed that Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) will receive €3.7 million investment to grow the Connected Health & Wellbeing ecosystem in the North Leinster South Ulster region and to drive significant job creation in this sector. 
DkIT was one of 26 successful regional projects announced by the Department this week as part of the results of the third call of the Regional Enterprise Development Fund (REDF) which awarded €40 million to support regional projects that drive sustainable job creation in the regions.
Speaking at the announcement, Minister Humphreys, TD said: “The Regional Enterprise Development Fund is about supporting every region to build on its unique strengths and ultimately create sustainable jobs. Collaboration is at its core – among the public and private sectors, within and across regions.
The projects we are funding today are at the cutting edge of innovation. I am confident that they have the potential to make a real and lasting impact on enterprise development at both regional and national level.”
The investment was awarded to the ‘DkIT Connect Project’ which aims to further develop the research, innovation and entrepreneurial landscape within the Connected Health & Wellbeing space in North Leinster South Ulster which has the capacity to create major job opportunities and to drive economic growth in the region. The investment will also support a significant expansion to the Regional Development Centre (RDC), the institute’s on-campus centre for business engagement, innovation and research.
President of DkIT, Michael Mulvey, PhD,  stated: “This funding builds on strengths in research, innovation and enterprise support at DkIT and is a strong endorsement of the vision from the public-private partnership involved to develop the Connected Health & Wellbeing ecosystem in the region. We firmly believe that this will be a catalyst for innovation in indigenous companies, both start-ups and existing businesses and will continue to bring about positive transformation for our region by supporting job creation,  enhancing leadership development and creating opportunities for upskilling which will improve the overall competitiveness of North Leinster South Ulster.”
Aidan Browne Head of Innovation & Business Development added: “The initiative is a cornerstone of the DkIT Strategic Plan and will strive to increase dynamism and agility of industry in this sector enabling upstream and downstream interaction between the SME community and FDI companies helping create, validate and commercialise a pipeline of products, services, business models and methods that will enable Irish research, start-ups and existing SMEs to move up the value chain and become high growth trajectory companies who can compete in new markets, partner with new customers and access new consumer opportunities.”
This announcement was the latest in a series of positive news stories in relation to increased funding for DkIT. Over the past two months, the institute has received approximately €9.2M in state investment to support new initiatives. These include  €4M to support major boost in computing & engineering undergraduate opportunities for the region via Human Capital Initiative, €750,000 via the Capital Grant Scheme to support ongoing campus minor works, €200,000 via the HEA Impact Assessment Case Studies and Performance Fund to support the scaling of the DkIT Corporate Partnership Programme and €287,928 via the Government’s Regional Technology Clustering Fund to support the development of a Connected Health & Wellbeing Industry Cluster in the North East.