Trinity College Dublin unveiled its plans to build a campus in the heart of Dublin’s Docklands to foster innovation and entrepreneurship. This campus is expected to be home to more than 400 startups and will be known as the “Grand Canal Innovation District”. An Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar hopes the project will be pivotal in helping Dublin remain as the tech capital of Europe. He expects the innovation district to help attract the best international talent and start ups to Dublin.
A short video of the district below.
The district will be led by a special advisory group and a number Dublin’s universities not just Trinity College Dublin. A new €1 billion campus will anchor the district. Trinity College Dublin will utilise their own 5.5-acre land bank to develop the campus which they hope will become a hub of startups, venture capitalists and civic spaces.
A plan to collaborate
Tech giants, such as Facebook, Google, Airbnb, Stripe and many more already have their European Headquarters in Grand Canal Quay and the nearby Silicon Docks. Just recently, Google acquired the Iconic Bolands Quay in a deal that is expected to be worth around €170m which sits directly beside the new Trinity College Campus.
Dr. Patrick Prendergast, provost of TCD, expects increased collaboration between businesses and, as universities within the district.
Public-Private Partnership
The district has been in development for the past 18 months. The whole project will be funded via a public-private partnership mechanism, which will include the university’s own investments, government funding, debt financing, and future rental income.
The district and the campus will aim to not only meet the needs of companies but also the needs of both faculty and students with research and innovation a key pillar of the district and new university campus.
This project will encourage, working with a thriving digital community in collaboration. Shared research facilities will be developed to encourage the community and ecosystem to come together and innovative.
Positioning Dublin as not just Europe’s global teah hub but the worlds
The construction of the Grand Canal Innovation District aims to continue to position as Dublin not as Europe’s leading tech hub but one of the world’s top location. This project will help marketing Dublin and Ireland as the ideal location to invest for investors against increasingly global competitors such as Singapore. Overall, we can expect the “Grand Canal Innovation District” to a vital infrastructure project for Dublin. It will create exciting opportunities for researchers, entrepreneurs, and companies to network and innovate together.
